| 11/12/2005
- Today’s agreement of 189 countries at the United Nations
Climate Change Conference in Montreal heralded a new chapter
in action on global climate change, Australia’s Minister
for the Environment and Heritage, Senator Ian Campbell,
said today.
After marathon all night negotiations, there was unanimous
agreement among all nations on a positive new pathway
forward to create an effective international response
in the post-Kyoto period.
Senator Campbell said Australia had played a key role
in the negotiations and had worked closely with the Canada
President of the Conference and many other nations to
get agreement to start a dialogue on post-Kyoto approaches
for long-term cooperative action on climate change.
“The post-Kyoto dialogue is an objective the Howard Government
has been promoting since 2004 and has been reflected in
decisions from the conference this week,” Senator Campbell
said.
The Montreal Climate Action Plan will deliver:
• A new dialogue on the post-Kyoto framework;
• A commitment from the President to explore pathways
for developing countries to enter into voluntary commitments
post-Kyoto;
• Improvements to the way Kyoto Protocol is implemented;
• Agreement to commence negotiations on post-2012 Protocol
commitments; and
• Agreement on the Convention’s first five-year work program
to help countries adapt to the impacts of climate change.
“Australia has always said that an environmentally effective
response to climate change requires action from all major
greenhouse gas emitting countries. The Montreal Climate
Action Plan is an historic step in achieving this goal,”
Senator Campbell said.
“The importance of advancing research, development and
deployment of breakthrough technologies that will enable
continuing economic growth with substantially lower greenhouse
gas emissions was repeatedly emphasised during the Montreal
meeting.
“The Asia-Pacific Partnership for Clean Development and
Climate (AP6) brings together Australia, the United States,
China, India, Japan and the Republic of Korea, to achieve
just this.”
The first Ministerial meeting of the AP6 will be held
in Sydney in mid January. |
