Posted
on 24 June 2010
Ottawa, Canada: G20 countries facing problems
with economy-threatening budget deficits
could release billions in funds by fulfilling
promises they made last year to pull back
huge subsidies on fossil fuels, WWF said
today.
“Recent work has estimated
that globally more than US$500 billion a
year goes into subsidising fossil fuel production
and consumption, roughly ten times the annual
amount estimated as adequate to meet global
Millennium Development Goals for eradicating
poverty,” said Kim Carstensen, leader of
WWF’s Global Climate Initiative.
The global environment
group strongly supported last years push
by the G20 to reduce climate change emissions
by an estimated 10 per cent by 2050 by phasing
out subsidies on gas, coal and oil and derivatives
including electricity.
At the 2009 Pittsburgh
G20 summit leaders noted that “inefficient
fossil fuel subsidies encourage wasteful
consumption, reduce our energy security,
impede investment in clean energy sources
and undermine efforts to deal with the threat
of climate change”.
Finance ministers of
the world’s largest economies were directed
to report to their leaders meeting in Toronto,
Canada in late June 2010 with implementation
strategies and timetables. With that deadline
now imminent, there are fears many states
are lagging in meeting this deadline.
“We are expecting studies
that will identify and show how much is
spent in each country on fossil fuel energy
subsidies, which in turn will show how big
a hole these are burning into budget deficits,”
said Carstensen.
“As the G20 nations
themselves recognise, the money is only
part of the equation. Reducing fossil fuel
use through reducing subsidies would encourage
efficiency, increase energy security, reduce
emissions and even benefit health. The boost
it would give to struggling economies is
yet another bonus.”
The G20 nations account
for close to 90 per cent of global GDP and
nearly 80 per cent of global CO2 emissions.
Some consumer subsidies
– directed to meeting the energy needs of
the poor in developing countries and replacing
health-threatening cooking fuels with cleaner
alternatives – may be justifiable, WWF noted.
“G20 nations that couldn’t
deliver a significant agreement on climate
change in Copenhagen are still holding out
the possibility that they could deliver
on a significant agreement on energy subsidies,”
said Carstensen
“We are looking to leaders
to ensure that their fine words of a year
ago are not allowed to degenerate into a
debate on how to define fuel subsidies.”
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Politics of climate
change transformed as leader dumped for
not acting
Posted on 24 June 2010
Gland, Switzerland: In what may come to
be seen as a pivotal moment in the global
politics of climate change, members of Australia’s
ruling Labor Party today dumped Prime Minister
Kevin Rudd in favour of his deputy, Julia
Gillard.
The basis of the sudden
and largely unexpected coup was a slide
in polls which many commentators attributed
to Rudd’s April decision to abandon efforts
to push a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme
(CPRS) through a hostile Senate
A poll commissioned
by WWF Australia which showed collapsing
government support and a soaring Green Party
vote in key marginal seats may also have
contributed to Rudd's ousting. He's been
replaced by Julia Gillard - Australia's
first woman prime-minister.
Leading national daily newspaper, The Australian,
made reference to “voter anger at the Prime
Minister's decision to delay the emissions
trading scheme (ETS)”, reporting that nearly
two thirds of voters in the marginals surveyed
supported an ETS while only a quarter opposed
it – and nearly two thirds said it would
affect the way they vote.
"We believe the
Labor Party's backflip on the emissions
trading scheme and its associated decline
in the polls is a key reason we now have
a new leader," said WWF-Australia CEO
Greg Bourne.
"It is not surprising
that support for an emissions trading scheme
is still a key factor in voters minds, given
it was a major platform for both major parties
at the last election and both have since
backflipped," said Kellie Caught, WWF-Australia's
Climate Change Policy Manager
"What this poll
makes clear is that taking serious action
to reduce Australia's carbon pollution is
a vote winner."
While Australians may
have acted first, indications are that they
are not alone. Two weeks ago, Stanford University
released research showing a large majority
of US citizens supported action on climate
change, reinforcing similar findings from
the UK.
Said Stanford Professor
of communication, political science and
psychology Jon A. Krosnick, who lead the
research, “a huge majority shares a common
vision of climate change”.
“This creates a unique
opportunity for elected representatives
to satisfy a lot of voters,” he concluded.
Australia’s new Prime
Minister said after her election that she
would make a priority of establishing a
“community consensus for action”. If re-elected
at the forthcoming elections, she said “
. . . I will re-prosecute the case for a
carbon price at home and abroad”.
WWF today congratulated Julia Gillard on
becoming the next Prime Minister of Australia
and urged the new leader to recommit to
an emissions trading scheme by, 2011.
“The party backflipped and now it is up
to the new leader to right the wrongs and
commit to an emissions trading scheme by
2011" , Mr Bourne said.
"Any attempt to just tinker around
the edges with piecemeal action will not
satisfy the Australian people that real
action is being taken.
