Rudd faces Gore's heat

Australian
Thursday 11/12/2008 Page: 1

BRITISH Prime Minister Gordon Brown and former US vice president Al Gore are urging Kevin Rudd to publicly back a tough global climate change agreement as the Government faces growing domestic pressure not to lead the world on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

The weekend phone calls from Mr Brown and Mr Gore, the self proclaimed climate guru, came as a leading unionist and the head of the nation's peak mining industry body attacked big banks, such as NAB and Westpac, for suggesting Australia should promise deep and unilateral greenhouse emission reductions, insisting the Government should tie any commitment to international agreements. Australian Workers Union leader Paul Howes accused the banks of being hypocritical and dishonest on the issue, because they stood to reap all the benefits of a new carbon market but suffer none of the pain.

And the Australian Industry Group, which represents the manufacturing sector, is urging the Rudd Government to rethink even modest plans because of the global financial crisis either starting its scheme as a "dry run" until the economic situation improves, or delaying the proposed 2010 start date.

The conflicting pressures centre on the size of the emission cuts to be announced when the Government unveils its scheme on Monday, and the extent to which they are contingent on the success of an international deal at next year's crucial UN summit meeting in Copenhagen.

The Government is understood to have decided to leave open the possibility of cutting domestic emissions by 25 per cent by 2020, but only as part of an ambitious and comprehensive international agreement including commitments from India and China, with domestic cuts of between 5 and 15 per cent by 2020 in the event of less successful international deals.

Mr Brown, Mr Gore, conservationists and sections of the business community have been lobbying the Government to leave the 25 per cent target on the table, and to announce it at the preparatory UN talks now under way in Poznan, Poland, to help give the negotiations momentum. The Government has so far declined to make a public announcement at Poznan.

Adding to the pressure, European NGOs last night ranked Australia below almost all developed countries and even below Russia in terms of its climate protection performance. On a table of the 57 largest CO2 emitting nations, Australia was ranked sixth worst, ahead of only Kazakhstan, Luxembourg, the US, Canada and Saudi Arabia.

The Climate Action Network said on Tuesday that Australia was "trying to wriggle their way out of putting their number on the table", and that it was "Groundhog Day in Australia" because the Rudd Government was behaving like the Howard government.

NAB and Westpac were among 140 international companies, including The Australian's parent company, News Corporation, that signed a "Poznan communique" released on Monday urging developed countries such as Australia to go even further and "take on immediate and deep economy-wide emissions reduction commitments" ahead of the international deal.

The communique prompted the extraordinary attack from Mr Howes, who writes in The Australian today: "The hypocrisy of big banks like Westpac and NAB, who signed up to a corporate communique on climate change, calling for aggressive unilateral targets, needs to be exposed. "Having participated in what can only be described as a global stuff-up of our financial system, they are now trying to tell Australian corporations who operate in the real economy, and generate real wealth and real jobs, how to behave on climate change.

"It's time their dishonest motivation was exposed the banks are looking to create a new source of revenue from carbon trading markets." The comments from Mr Howes whose members work in heavily affected industries including oil and gas, cement, steel and aluminium were backed by the chief executive of the Minerals Council of Australia, Mitch Hooke.

"These guys seem to be saying we should set a target ahead of a global agreement, but this cheer squad has all care and no responsibility we are the ones who have to make this scheme work. It's a bit hard to get excited right now about the financial sector's enthusiasm for new forms of financial derivatives." And Heather Ridout, chief executive of Al Group, has urged the Government to be even more cautious with its plans. She said the Government's commitments on climate change were shaped by "the politics of prosperity", and that the global financial crisis presented a "strong case" for the Government to rethink how it managed the scheme's early years.

One option is to adopt a start that is akin to a pilot scheme or a dry run. This could involve, for example, minimum cost burdens and placing emphasis on education about how to comply with reporting obligations rather than imposing heavy penalties on errors and misunderstandings. "Another option is to reconsider whether 2010 is an appropriate time to implement the scheme in Australia," she writes in The Australian today.

In Poznan last night, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong was adamant the Government would stick to the 2010 start-up date for carbon trading. It would be wrong to introduce any uncertainty about the Government's intentions," she said. One of the key considerations is to give business the certainty they need. We are talking, particularly in the energy sector, about long-run decisions that are going to be critical in Australia reducing its emissions over the next 10 or 20 years."