AAP Newswire
Thursday 6/9/2007
SYDNEY, Sept 6 AAP - The Australian government needs to take a leaf out of China's book and introduce practical strategies to reduce climate change, Greenpeace says. Speaking in the middle of the APEC summit, Greenpeace energy campaigner Mark Wakeham said time was running out for Prime Minister John Howard to implement real solutions. "Now we are reaching the pointy end of the APEC meeting, it seems that any chance of real progress on climate change is fairly slim," he said.
A new Greenpeace report on climate change, released today, renews appeals for the federal government to set a target for reducing greenhouse gases by at least 30 per cent by 2020. The report also recommends a funding boost of $200 million a year for renewable energy research and development. Mr Wakeham said Australia had a lot to learn from the Chinese, who were strong advocates of the Kyoto Protocol and had implemented real strategies to combat climate change.
Australia was undermining China's efforts by blaming it for a lack of progress while refusing to set its own greenhouse gas emission targets, he said. "The Chinese government has announced that between now and 2020 will see around $322 billion invested in renewable energy projects in China," he said. "They have introduced a renewable energy target of 16 per cent by 2020, by comparison with Australia's renewable energy target of less than two per cent." He accused the Australian government of being held back on climate change in the interests of the coal and oil industries, which he said were Australia's main focuses during APEC discussions.
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