Not too late to save the planet, scientist says

Canberra Times
22/09/2007 Page: 13

Action on climate change should have been taken decades ago but it's not too late to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, prominent Australian author and scientist Tim Flannery said yesterday. Professor Flannery, the 2007 Australian of the Year, said climate change was now at a tipping point and the world could face dangerous climate change patterns this decade if current pollution levels persisted. "If we continue polluting the atmosphere as we are, we'll be at that point within a decade, so we don't have a lot of time to act," Professor Flannery said.

He told the One Planet - Leaving a Legacy forum in Melbourne that to reduce the negative impact on the world's ecosystems, industrial emissions would have to be reduced. Polluters should agree on a price to pay for the pollution they sent into the atmosphere. "We need to agree locally on a price for that pollution in excess of $50 per tonne of carbon," he said. "If we set the price somewhere above that, the cleanest technologies will become cost effective and will meet rapid uptake in the market." But emission reductions would not be enough. "We've left things too late. We should have acted 10 to 20 years ago on this issue." It was not too late to set carbon prices, but global agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol were also important because they encouraged international dialogue around climate change.

Federal Labor's environment spokesman Peter Garrett told the forum the ALP supported a range of renewable energy sources, and reiterated the party's opposition to nuclear power. "Apart from nuclear, which we have a serious objection to, we're basically saying that there are a suite of potential and existing renewable energy sources which need to drive clean energy revolution in this country, to enable us to reduce our emissions," Mr Garrett said.

Program manager for energy and climate change at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development Adam Kirkman said,"If governments are going to seriously look at zero-carbon energy sources then the conversation around nuclear has to be had.". Mr Kirkman, the co-author of a policy for a new international climate change framework produced for the council, said that while the Kyoto Protocol had brought together the greater part of the world to address climate change, it had not been universally embraced. A new framework should have more flexible emissions targets to attract rapidly developing countries such as India and China.