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US climate agency declares CO2 public danger

“Climate change has now become a household issue,” said Lisa Jackson, head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), adding that the evidence of climate change was real and increasingly alarming. “This administration will not ignore science or the law any longer, nor will we ignore the responsibility we owe to our children and our grandchildren.”

The announcement gives the EPA a legal basis for capping emissions from major sources such as coal power plants, as well as cars. Jackson said she hoped it would help to spur a deal in Copenhagen.

The EPA action had been seen as a backstop should Congress fail to pass climate change law. Obama and other officials had repeatedly said they would prefer to pass legislation, but that prospect has grown increasingly remote. The House of Representatives narrowly passed a climate change bill in June, but the proposals have stalled in the Senate.

Jackson said the EPA’s regulations, which would come into effect from next spring, would not be too onerous, applying only to facilities emitting more than 25,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.

The oil and manufacturing industries, which have opposed climate change action, said the move was overly politicised, and warned that the new regulations would be tied up in lawsuits.

The US Chamber of Commerce, also sceptical on global warming, said the move would hurt the economy. “An endangerment finding from the EPA could result in a top-down, command-and-control regime that will choke off growth by adding new mandates to virtually every major construction and renovation project,” said Thomas Donohue, the chamber’s president.

Jackson is to address the Copenhagen meeting on Wednesday, while Obama will join more than 100 other world leaders in the Danish capital on the final day of the conference, on 18 December.

The endangerment declaration dates from a supreme court decision in 2007 ordering the EPA to make a ruling on whether carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions were a pollutant subject to the Clean Air Act of the 1970s.

Tont Abbott’s scepticism will shock liberal voters

Tony Abbott’s scepticism will shock Liberal voters

Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown has said that Tony Abbott’s stated
scepticism on climate change today will shock many Liberal voters.

“And in a world where both big and small business understand the science
of climate change and the need for appropriate action, Abbott’s comments
will also dismay most business operators,” Senator Brown said.

“Abbott’s failure on climate change is shepherding the government’s
weakness at Copenhagen. For instance, the Rudd government’s failure to
announce adequate funds for developing countries to deal with climate
change, described as an insult by the spokesperson for the G77 plus
China developing nations group, Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Aping.”

“Oxfam estimates Australia’s baseline contribution should be over $3
billion a year.”

“The make-up of Tony Abbott’s new front bench makes Sir Robert Menzies
look pink,” Senator Brown said.

Media contact: Peter Stahel 0433 005 727

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ETS will cost families ‘little or nothing’ promises Rudd

But Mr Rudd said 2.9 million low-income families would be fully compensated for the rises.

And 2.6 million of those – 90 per cent – would get a windfall, with compensation totalling 120 per cent of cost rises.

There would be cash assistance for 3.6 million middle-income households, half of which would be fully compensated for extra expenses.

Single pensioners would get an extra $455 a year as compensation and couples $686, Mr Rudd said.

The money would come from forcing industries to buy permits for the tonnage of carbon pollution they produced.

PM ‘ignoring’ plight of Australia’s sinking islands

Through the plane window I could see Boigu was little more than an oblong mangrove swamp, just a few kilometres off PNG.

Even at its centre, wide muddy expanses covered in shallow ponds formed intricate patterns of tan and yellow and grey, and reflected the sunlight back at me.

On arrival I was introduced to Keith Pabai, who, along with being the headmaster of the island’s primary school, is a traditional owner.

He took me around, showing me how far the last king tide – in January 2009 – had crashed over sea walls and flooded the town.

All but a tiny proportion of the island had been submerged. The fresh water supply had been threatened.

“For some of our community members that was a frightening experience,” he said.

“In my lifetime that’s the biggest tide ever that I’ve seen, where that amount of – that excess of water coming through the community.”

He motioned toward the small incline which led up to the lip of the covered dam.

“Having the water here, that was scary, right up next to our water supply. The water was actually right around the whole dam,” Mr Pabai said.

Also disturbing to the community was the fact that one of its most sacred sites, the waterfront cemetery, was being slowly washed away.

I went to visit it and, sure enough, many of the graves had clearly been damaged. Wooden crosses had collapsed and were now entwined in tree roots exposed by erosion.

Here was an ancient culture which, if the scientists were right, would surely soon be swamped. But, according to Mr Pabai, there was no question the community wanted to stay put.

“It is something we haven’t thought of yet as a community, but these things are something we have to consider in the future, but at this time not as yet,” he said.

‘Freak tides’

The next day, I flew to another vulnerable island, this time in the centre of the Strait.

Warraber is, like several other stunning little islands, supported by coral. It is also very low.

I was received at the airport by local councillor Willie Lui, who toured me around his tropical paradise home.

Mr Lui showed me the lengths his community had gone to try to hold back the tides.

The biggest rocks that could be found had been dumped at the foreshore and covered with tyres, dead trees and brush. New palms had been planted in front of piles of coconuts.

It was an admirable effort for such a small community, but I secretly feared it would not hold.

In an interview, Mr Lui was clearly angry.

“We feel that nothing is actually being done,” he said.

“We’ve seen that the tides are getting higher, the winds are getting stronger, we’re getting more freak tides … and it not only scares me, it scares all of my community members.

“Australian dollars are going overseas to actually help other countries, and as a newly elected leader I find it hard to wrap my head around why the Government is fixing problems overseas. What about our own backyard. What about the Torres Strait?”

Conspiracy theories

Mr Lui said that the lack of response from authorities had resulted in conspiracy theories.

Rumours had started circulating that the Federal Government was secretly planning a forced relocation of people living on the six vulnerable islands in the Strait.

“How things are going at the moment, with the Local Government trying to secure funds from the State and the Federal Government, it makes the people think that the Government wants us to relocate – that’s what goes through the mind of the locals, the community members,” Mr Lui said.

Back on Thursday Island, which is the Strait’s administrative centre, the chairman of the Torres Strait Regional Authority, John Toshi Kris, has been working to try to secure funds from the Government.

He too is “bamboozled” at the fact Australia is giving Pacific Island countries $150 million in funding to adjust to climate change, while calls for $22 million to fund mitigation work in the Strait have amounted to nothing.

“This has been going on for the last two years,” he said.

“We haven’t had a single dollar coming in to fix up those short-term projects that we’ve identified.

“We’ve seen houses going under water.

“People are frustrated with sandbags. What they need to see is real projects on the ground to try and save these communities.”

Mr Kris also pointed out the potential of a massive influx of climate refugees from the low-lying, swampy southern coast of PNG.

“Erosion can cause a lot of people, issues coming across the border. The Government has been focusing on other countries but right on their doorstep here is a huge issue which can lead to a [big] national crisis … for our country,” he said.

“When we’re talking about the low lying part of Papua New Guinea, we’re not talking about tens and thousands of people, we’re talking about over 100,000 people that could actually come across.”

Copenhagen must be a turning point. Our children won’t forgive us if we fail

And today, together with Norway and Australia, the UK is taking a further step to a Copenhagen agreement: publishing a framework for the long-term transfer of resources to meet the mitigation and adaptation needs of developing countries.

Let no one be in any doubt about the overwhelming scientific evidence that underpins the Copenhagen conference. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change brings together over 4,000 scientists from every corner of the world. Their recent work has sharpened, not diminished, the huge and diverse body of evidence of human-made global warming. Its landmark importance cannot be wished away by the theft of a few emails from one university research centre. On the contrary, the pernicious anti-scientific backlash that the emails have unleashed has exposed just what is at stake.

The purpose of the climate change deniers’ campaign is clear, and the timing no coincidence. It is designed to destabilise and undermine the efforts of the countries gathering in Copenhagen today.

And the reason is that – if we can summon the political will to secure the ambitious agreement we need – Copenhagen is poised to achieve a profound historical transformation: reversing the road we have travelled for 200 years.

Over that time we have based our prosperity on burning fossil fuels and cutting down forests. Now we need to create wealth and quality of life, not by putting carbon into the atmosphere but by taking it out. We need to build, in short, a low carbon economy. And not just at home: our aim must be to do this in every major economy of the world.

This will involve change: a shift from the energy dictatorship of oil and traditional fossil fuels to the efficiency, self-reliance and security of low carbon energy systems, which will be the engine of growth and job creation over the coming decade.

Inevitably, as with every great project of social and economic progress in the global and public interest, there will be vested interests who seek to oppose it. And so I will take on with evidence, argument and moral passion all the anti-science and anti-change environmental Luddites who seek to stand in the way of progress.

As we embark on these two weeks of negotiations, the British government is absolutely clear about what we must achieve. Our aim is a comprehensive and global agreement that is then converted to an internationally legally binding treaty in no more than six months. The agreement must put the world on a path to no more than two degrees of global warming. That means at least halving global emissions by 2050. And at the same time the deal must provide help to the poorest and most vulnerable countries to adapt to those climatic changes that are now inevitable – and that many are already experiencing.

While we have made huge progress over recent weeks, there is still movement required. First, all countries need to reach for high level ambition in their commitments to reduce their emissions and their emissions growth. Many countries have put forward offers that are dependent on the ambition of others. The European Union, notably, has committed to reducing our emissions by 30% if the overall deal is strong enough. Others, such as Australia and Japan, have made similar offers. So in Copenhagen we need to ensure that all countries move to the top of the range of their ambition, thereby enabling others to do so in a process of mutual reinforcement.

Second, we need a financing agreement that enables developing countries to tackle climate change. Money is needed for both adaptation to climate change and for its mitigation – that is, for investment in low carbon energy and energy efficiency, for green technology co-operation and – perhaps most important of all – to enable a radical reduction in deforestation in the rainforest countries.

That is why at the Commonwealth meeting last weekend I proposed, and the Commonwealth agreed, a Copenhagen Launch Fund to provide financial assistance to developing countries – not simply in 2013 but now, starting next year and building to $10bn annually by 2012. I am delighted that President Obama is not only going to Copenhagen to help conclude the deal, but leading the way on this. Along with President Sarkozy, Chancellor Merkel and Prime Minister Rudd he has committed his country to paying its fair share. This week I will ask the whole of the EU to do so as well.

And as our joint statement says, at Copenhagen we also need to address the need for financing in the longer term, to support adaptation and mitigation in developing countries. The world needs to be sure that the agreement will secure the required level of global emissions reductions. But that means developing countries must to be able to plan their investments with confidence. So we need to consider a system of “payment for results”, in which low carbon and sustainable forest mitigation plans are financed over the long term for the emissions reductions they achieve.

Third, we need to design a “transparency mechanism” by which all countries can see clearly what is happening, not only in their own countries but in others. In a great global project of mutual ambition, we all need to be confident in one another.

When I first said leaders should go to Copenhagen, I wanted to ensure that there was as little room for failure as possible. More than 100 leaders are now attending. If by the end of next week we have not got an ambitious agreement, it will be an indictment of our generation that our children will not forgive. I will be doing everything in my power to ensure we succeed.

Sometimes history comes to turning points. For all our sakes, the turning point of 2009 must be real.

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