LABOR and the Greens have hit out at the Federal Government’s new carbon emissions reduction target, saying it will put Australia behind global efforts to stem climate change.
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“The government’s assumption that setting a globally responsible, stronger target will damage the Australian economy is deeply flawed”, Alan Pears of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology told the Australian Science Media Centre.
Meena Raman, a negotiator at the Malaysian-based Third World Network, which links activists and analysts from developing countries to follow United Nations processes, said Australia’s conservative target undermined confidence in the outcome of the Paris summit.
Right now, four months ahead of Paris, the US, EU, China, Australia and around 50 other countries, representing over 60% of emissions, have pledged to rein in their carbon as part of a new global compact on climate change.
Abbot said his Government is committed to tackling climate change without a carbon tax or an emissions trading scheme that will hike up power bills for families, pensioners and businesses.
But it would also rely on “other forms of abatement”, including possible technological advances.
Australia could hold a parliamentary vote on same-sex marriage if his coalition government wins next year’s general election, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Tuesday during a meeting with parliament members over whether they should allow a constitutional referendum on a marriage equality bill. But Australia does better than Japan (still dealing with the Fukushima nuclear disaster), Norway and Russian Federation.
Australia is one of the biggest carbon emitters on a for each capita premise because of its dependence on coal-let go force plants, and commentators say the move will do little to align it with yearning targets set by the United States and Europe.
“At this stage, the Australian government have indicated they are looking to be in the “middle of the pack” and are likely to sit somewhere between Canada and the U.S.”, said Kellie Caught, national climate change manager for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Australia, in emailed comments.
Canada, whose resource-driven economy is comparable to Australia’s, has nominated a 30 per cent cut below 2005 levels by 2030.
Among them is his sister Christine Forster, who is gay, who told Fairfax Media on May 25 the government should bring on a vote to stop the issue from becoming a “political football” at next year’s election.
The government felt that the target was something it could successfully sell both at home and overseas, the Herald said.
Meanwhile, activists insist, the Australian public wants to see the country act on climate change.
“Our emissions intensity and emissions per person will fall further than other developed economies”.
In June, the government reduced its Renewable Energy Target – a policy to ensure a minimum amount of Australia’s electricity comes from renewable sources by 2020 – from a legislated 41,000 gigawatt hours minimum to 33,000 gigawatt hours.
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In effect, it extends the exceptionalism that Australia sought for itself at the original Kyoto talks in 1997, when it managed to secure an increase in emissions as its target.
