“It is not enough to aim for any kind of agreement at Copenhagen. We
must work for an agreement which will actually give the world a decent
chance of preventing climate crisis.
“An agreement to fail is worse than a failure to agree.”
The “Fossil of the Day” award is agreed by representatives of over 450
NGOs on each day of each global climate negotiation. That Australia was
awarded the first “Fossil of the Day” at the Bonn conference shows how
unhelpful the Rudd Government’s target is.
The award language reads:
Australia was awarded First Place, for announcing its target which puts
unreasonable conditions on other countries. Australia will adopt an
inadequate 24% target by 2020 with the following and particularly
obnoxious provisos that include, all countries (including developing
countries) contribute finance and that developing countries slow growth,
take a 20% (against BAU) reduction by 2020 and nominate a peaking year
for their emissions. It is worth noting that Australia’s emissions have
yet to peak and they are yet to commit any additional money to
adaptation.
“The Greens have consistently called for the Government to put 40% cuts
below 1990 levels by 2020 on the table in the context of a global
agreement, and to commit to an unconditional offer of 25% cuts as a
gesture of good faith for the global negotiations.
“The Rudd Government refusing to do anything like what is necessary
while demanding that everybody else works harder can only encourage
other rich countries like Japan and Canada to also behave badly, drive
China and India away from the table and undermine the chances of strong
global action.
“Making a good faith offer of 25% unconditional cuts will encourage
countries like China and India to come to the table and increase the
likelihood of a strong global agreement.”
Tim Hollo
Media Adviser
Senator Christine Milne | Australian Greens Deputy Leader and Climate
Change Spokesperson
Suite SG-112 Parliament House, Canberra ACT | P: 02 6277 3588 | M: 0437
587 562
http://www.christinemilne.org.au/| www.GreensMPs.org.au
<http://www.greensmps.org.au/>