15
Dec 2008 - Sydney, Australia - In the space
of a year Australia has gone from climate
change hero to climate change under-achiever,
announcing an emissions reduction target
of just 5-15 per cent by 2020 with the higher
figure tied to the rest of the world reaching
a binding agreement on climate change.
The announcement – made
in a government white paper as the UN climate
change conference ended inconclusively in
Poznan, Poland – was branded as a pitiful
result of pandering to lazy and short-sighted
polluting businesses by WWF-Australia.
It was a far cry from
the adulation received by Australia when
the then new government signed on to the
Kyoto protocol as almost its first official
act on the eve of the pivotal Bali UN conference
on climate change in December last year.
“This target is completely
unacceptable,” said Paul Toni, WWF-Australia
Program Leader Sustainable Development.
“Australia’s big polluters have forced the
government to sacrifice ordinary Australians’
future prosperity for their short term profits
today.
“The Australian Treasury’s
economic modelling has shown that cuts of
25 per cent are affordable and achievable
if part of an international agreement. This
should be the government’s aim.”
Mr Toni said the pain
Australian families were experiencing due
to the global financial crisis would only
worsen in the future if the government was
not ambitious with its pollution reduction
target now.
“If we do not act now
the economic burden imposed on everyday
Australians will be immense – with rising
food costs, higher insurance premiums and
massive job losses in tourism and agriculture.
“Ironically, both climate
change and the financial crisis are direct
results of selfish, short-term planning
and mismanagement by big business,” Mr Toni
said.
WWF was also critical
of government plans to gift large and possible
growing proportions of permits to the biggest
polluters.
“Compensation for heavily
polluting industries robs the clean industries
of the future of vital funding,” Toni said.
“If Australia wants
to dramatically reduce emissions we must
invest in new technologies such as wind,
ocean, geothermal and solar, so we can start
cutting emissions this decade.”
WWF said 2009 would
be a defining moment in the planet’s history
and urged the Australian
government to take the initiative on a global
pact to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“Our actions from this
point on will be judged by future generations.
It is WWF-Australia’s
hope our children will take pride in our
actions rather than be ashamed by what this
generation lost through self-interest and
equivocation,” Mr Toni said.
+ More
WWF applauds British
call for ship emission trading
16 Dec 2008 - London,
England - WWF-UK has welcomed a call from
the British shipping industry for a global
emissions trading scheme which would help
to combat greenhouse gases.
The British Chamber
of Shipping yesterday became the first major
global shipping body to call for such a
solution. It claims a scheme of this nature
would combat carbon emissions more effectively
than regional schemes operated by the European
Union.
The trade body said
it recognised that there was no effective
way to include shipping in a national carbon
emissions scheme because of the very nature
of seaborne trade, and that trading emissions
were the only practical solution. A UN International
Maritime Organisation report shows that
shipping accounts for close to 3 per cent
of global CO2 emissions.
“I am very pleased that
the UK shipping industry is advocating an
emissions trading system for ships and I
look forward to working with them to refine
and build support for the proposal,” said
Peter Lockley, Head of Transport Policy
WWF-UK.
“If designed well, the
scheme would put a price on maritime carbon
emissions, speeding up the drive for cleaner
ships and helping to pay for low-carbon
development in poorer countries. It would
position shipping as a progressive and responsible
industry, and I very much hope that it will
be part of a global climate change deal
next year in Copenhagen.”
Martin Watson, president
of the UK Chamber of Shipping which represents
some 860 merchant ships that trade internationally,
said that UK shipping “must make a significant
contribution” in battling carbon emissions.
He described his organisation’s latest move
as “a bold and far-reaching decision that
gives a lead to the rest of the shipping
world”.
“This is the first association
to come out and support emissions trading
in an effort to try and rally sister associations
around the world ahead of the 2009 Climate
Change Conference in Copenhagen,” said John
Stevenson, another spokesman for the Chamber
of Shipping.
