Courier Mail
Wednesday 17/12/2008 Page: 25
THE Australian Greens were yesterday buoyed by US President-elect Barack Obama's appointment of a renowned energy efficiency expert. Mr Obama vowed a new dawn for US leadership to combat climate change after revealing Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Chu as his energy secretary. The Rudd Government on Monday released its mid-term targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and urged the rest of the world, particularly the US and China, to do its share.
Australian Greens deputy leader Christine Milne said Mr Obama's appointment would help ensure the US moved quickly on climate change. "Dr Chu is an inspired choice who will drive the transformation in the American economy that the Rudd Government completely failed to deliver (on Monday)," Senator Milne said.
"Dr Chu is ... opposed to nuclear energy and deeply sceptical of coal's ability to clean up its act." As energy secretary, Dr Chu will lead Mr Obama's ambitious agenda to generate 2.5 million new jobs through green and new technologies aimed at making the US more energy efficient and less reliant on foreign oil. "We've seen Washington launch policy after policy, yet our dependence on foreign oil has only grown, even as the world's resources are disappearing," Mr Obama said.
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