Rudd challenges APEC on climate

Australian
Tuesday 28/8/2007 Page: 2

KEVIN Rudd says next week's APEC leaders' meeting in Sydney will be a failure unless the 21 participating nations take concrete action toward a global approach to climate change. And the Opposition Leader has demanded John Howard reverse his refusal to set targets for reductions in carbon emissions and seek commitments from other nations to follow suit. But the Prime Minister yesterday set a different standard for success of APEC the adoption of "aspirational targets" that leave room for developing nations to pursue further development.

Next week's meeting gives APEC an opportunity to take a position on climate change before a US-convened meeting of major carbon emitters next month and UN ministerial-level climate negotiations in Bali in December. Mr Howard and Mr Rudd both addressed luncheons in Sydney on the issue yesterday, each reflecting the climate change policies they will take to the approaching federal election.

Mr Rudd, who favours reducing Australia's carbon emissions by 60 per cent by 2050, said Mr Howard must be a leader on the problem, not a follower. "Put simply, if APEC can't get its act together on one of the biggest challenges of our day in climate change, then it has no future," he told the Australian Institute of International Affairs. "Australia's core problem in hosting next week's APEC summit is that we come to the table with little credibility on climate change." Mr Rudd said Mr Howard was a climate change sceptic whose refusal to agree on the need for emissions reduction targets left him isolated, with business and green groups agreeing on the need for action.

"America has moved, the rest of the developed world has moved, much of the developing world is moving," Mr Rudd said. "But our Prime Minister, the chair of next week's APEC summit, remains unmoved." Australia must convince all APEC members to endorse the Kyoto Protocol and embrace a target of a 60 per cent reduction in emissions against 2000 levels by
2050.

Mr Howard, who has refused to set an emissions target pending economic evaluations by Treasury but favours a carbon-trading system, told the Lowy Institute he would use APEC to promote 'aspirational" targets. "I would like to see APEC leaders agree for the first time that a new international agreement should include an agreed longterm aspirational goal for reducing greenhouse gas emissions," Mr Howard said. "The key task in Sydney is to give political direction to the shape of a future framework for climate change that is truly global." Mr Howard said it would be wrong to deny developing APEC economies their aspirations for continued growth. "Indeed, economic growth and prosperity is the best means of tackling the very environmental issues that rich, industrialised nations are also tackling," he said.

He wanted APEC to act on the need for a comprehensive agreement that involved flexibility and respect for different national circumstances. Member nations should also embrace the importance of creating carbon sinks through forestry and build deeper co-operation on technologies that reduce emissions. "This should take account of the reality of continued use of fossil fuels, as well as the potential of renewable energy sources and the proven contribution that can be made by nuclear power," he said. "A new APEC consensus would provide political momentum to both the US-led initiative to bring together major economies later in September and the UN conference in Bali in December."