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Australia Sabotages Climate Summit
Sydney (AFP) Nov. 26, 2000 Environmentalist groups blamed the Australian government Sunday for the failure of the Hague summit on global warming, claiming it was part of a western effort to sabotage it. The Climate Action Network Australia (CANA), representing 30 groups, said Australia had worked with the United States, Japan and Canada in a campaign to allow pollution increases to exceed limits set in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997. "Their persistent efforts to weaken the Kyoto Protocol treaty are driven by the narrow self-interest of their big polluting companies and history will remember these nations as climate vandals," CANA said. "Australia should have taken a much more positive and environmentally responsible stance at the summit." The two week summit, tasked with hammering out a binding world treaty requiring rich countries to reduce greenhouse gas-producing pollution which fuels global warming, ended Saturday with what was seen as a face-saving agreement to meet again in May next year. Australia wanted flexible rules on greenhouse reduction targets, including a focus on the use of carbon sinks, which involves planting trees to combat the problem. UN Environment Program (UNEP) head Klaus Toepfer said he was "shocked and disappointed" by the failure of the summit and warned against abandoning the goal of a worldwide common policy on climate control. Greens Party senator Bob Brown accused Prime Minister John Howard's Australian government of sabotaging the conference. "I think the Australian government went with the deliberate intention of sabotaging this conference if it didn't get its way," he said. He said Australia's Environment Minister Robert Hill had pulled the rug from under "even a moderately sensible solution. "As a result, Australia together with the US, Japan and Canada have ensured that this conference has failed." However, Howard refused to concede Australia could be even partly blamed for the collapsed talks. "I think we were constructive, if you're interested in our national interest," Howard said in a television interview. Howard praised Hill for his commitment to the environment, and denied Hill's early departure from the summit had caused any damage, saying he would have made an assessment as to how it was going. "He fought hard for Australia and the dispute was centred around carbon sinks -- the extent that you can set off the carbon absorbing capacity of reforestation and trees against emissions. "It's very important for Australia that that be kept in the package." Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express Dirt, rocks and all the stuff we stand on firmly
Magnetic Reconnection Region Larger Than 2.5 Million Km Found In The Solar Wind
Paris (ESA) Jan 12, 2006Using the ESA Cluster spacecraft and the NASA Wind and ACE satellites, a team of American and European scientists have discovered the largest jets of particles created between the Earth and the Sun by magnetic reconnection. This result makes the cover of this week's issue of Nature. |
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