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Brisbane offsets emissions with trees
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One million Aussies demand global warming action
“The science and the economics are clear – there is no excuse for Australian political parties not to set 2020 targets to substantially cut Australia’s greenhouse pollution. These early reduction targets are the absolute minimum we need to achieve to protect Australia from dangerous climate change," Mr Henry said.
"The Howard government says it won’t take action on climate change if it hurts the economy. The reality is global warming is already damaging the economy, and Sir Nicholas Stern has told us that the price of doing nothing will be much higher than the cost of taking action," said Greenpeace Australia-Pacific CEO, Steve Shallhorn.
“Australia can reduce greenhouse emissions by 30% by 2020 by implementing solutions that are already available including support for an ambitious energy efficiency program, setting a decent renewable energy generation target and curtailing logging and landclearing”, said Climate Action Network Australia Coordinator, Julieanne Richards. “As well as reducing our domestic greenhouse pollution, Australia needs to show international leadership by ratifying the Kyoto Protocol and working to stabilise global greenhouse emissions.”
“We are also calling on major parties to reject dangerous and costly nuclear power in Australia. Nuclear reactors are too slow, too dirty, too dangerous and too costly to play a role in Australia’s energy future and to constitute any kind of credible response to climate change," said The Wilderness Society Acting National Director, Virginia Young.
“Climate change is an unprecedented threat and the need to secure commitments from politicians to act immediately makes this election crucial. A healthy environment is vital for the ongoing economic and social well-being of our communities," said ACT Conservation Council Director, Trish Harrup.
Collectively the groups represent more than a million people across Australia.
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Bushfires to wreak havoc
Monday’s first public hearing comes after bushfires last summer ravaged more than one million hectares, mostly in the state’s north and east.
Mr Esplin said days of extreme fire risk were expected to increase by between 25 per cent and 50 per cent by 2050, adding drought and bushfires would become the norm and wet years the exception.
While fire response capabilities were vital, the focus must be on prevention and mitigation strategies, he said.
Fuel loads had accumulated over the past 50 years and prescribed burning, while not a panacea for tackling bushfires, was a critical tool, the inquiry was told.
"Prescribed burning is not without its own inherent risks yet it’s a critical tool in the firefighter’s tool kit," Mr Esplin said.
"Much research indicates that it can significantly assist bushfire suppression activities by reducing fire’s rate of spread."
Communications and public education were also crucial, Country Fire Authority (CFA) chief executive Neil Bibby said.
He told the inquiry the public had shown a thirst for knowledge during times of bushfire, with 53,000 calls logged to a bushfires information line last summer and the website receiving 2.3 million hits.
But some sections of the community were disengaged.
Mr Bibby said a new threat had emerged with the "sea change and the tree change" putting a large number of people and houses in the line of fire.
"We may have been lulled into a false sense of security, none of those large fires (in these areas) had the intensity or the speed that the Canberra fires had or Ash Wednesday had," he said.
"You add the demographics changes of the sea change and tree change and you see the potential to have a disaster which is significantly like Canberra."
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Ziggy backs Labor’s emission targets
"When it comes to global climate Australia’s policies have got to be focused on influencing international policy and ensuring Australia has a position at the main table."Dr Switkowski says Labor’s target needs to be part of a global framework.
"If the world, the community of high emitting nations in particular, achieve that target then we will collectively benefit from a stabilisation of global warming and leave the global climate in reasonable circumstance," he said.
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Global scheme only solution – Garner
Population-based quota allocations: Garnaut argued that an international cap and trade carbon trading regime could begin with emission quotas allocated mainly to the rich greenhouse gas producing nations, such as Australia, but probably would gradually move towards a quota distribution based on population. That would favour the developing nations.
Target energy user emissions, not exporters: The "smart way" to structure the regime would be to target emissions of energy users rather than energy exporters. "If Australia exports a lot of coal to Japan, that’s part of Japan’s emissions," he said. "The issue for our coal producers is not what we do in Australia but what other countries are doing." The coal industry, "which has figured prominently in the discussions so far", has a very strong interest in the development of a good international regime, he said.
Global coal demand could fall: "On the whole our coal exports are relatively clean. We may find global coal use falls a lot but our place in the total coal economy improves." However, in the absence of a strong international regime, countries will be tempted to protect their own coal industries. "The easiest coal for China to exclude will be the imported coal. The easiest coal for Germany to exclude will be the imported coal," he added.
The Australian Financial Review, 1/5/2007, p.8
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Howard ‘foolish indeed’ – Greens
In a speech stunningly devoid of any description of the impact of climate change on Australia’s environment, cities, agriculture or economic wellbeing, Prime Minister Howard today put off real action for at least another five years.
“John Howard simply doesn’t understand climate change,” Greens Leader Bob Brown said today.
“His comment that it would be ‘foolish indeed’ to ignore the evidence on climate change condemns his own foolishness for the past 11 years in failing to tackle climate change.”
“Far from leaving our children ‘debt-free’, Howard is racking up a debt of more bushfires, more intense droughts, a bleached Great Barrier Reef and no ski-fields for Australia’s children – as if these are no-cost factors.”
“Not once in his entire speech did the Prime Minister talk about what the science demands in response to climate change. He ignored the environment and spoke only of what the coal, aluminium and aviation sectors are prepared to accept,” Greens Climate Change spokesperson, Senator Christine Milne said.
“Climate change is not going to wait for the Liberal party. Keeping global temperature rises to 2C or less requires rigorous action now and it is Prime Minister Howard who has been ‘missing in action’ and who is ‘steeped in recklessness and symbolism’."
“Australia can trust the Greens to face the reality of climate change and to make decisions that will truly give our children hope,” Senator Milne said.