Poor score for Australia on climate

The Australian
July 04, 2006

AUSTRALIA is the least prepared of all the world's developed countries to tackle the issue of climate change, a report by a newly-formed environmental foundation says.

The survey by the Climate Institute Australia has identified the top ten world trends in what it says is a shift in the fight against greenhouse warming.

Its Top Ten Tipping Points on Climate Change report, launched in Sydney tonight, concludes that science is the number one trend in the fight against global warming, an issue the institute says Australia had “gone adrift” on. “As the US moves forward on climate, it leaves Australia politically and economically isolated as the least prepared developed country in the world on the issue,” the report says.

The national organisation was established in late 2005 with a $10 million grant from the Poola Charitable Foundation, created by a branch of the Murdoch family. More recently it has attracted the services of former New South Wales Premier Bob Carr, who chairs an advisory council for the group.

The institute, which has set a five-year goal of raising public awareness of climate change, is chaired by prominent academic and researcher Clive Hamilton. The institute's chief executive, Corin Millais, said Australia would be “stranded” as the US joined the rest of the world in taking action.

“The US is moving even though it hasn't signed the (Kyoto) protocol,” Mr Millais said. “And that's probably of most political concern to Australia, because it leaves Australia stranded politically and economically.”

According to the study, climate change is intensifying.

“We've seen a significant amount, almost an avalanche, of data highlighting the impacts happening today and the great urgency of the impacts in the coming decade if no further action is taken,” Mr Millais said

After science, the changing position of the US on greenhouse gases is the second-biggest trend in the shift in the fight against climate change, the report finds.

The role of business comes in at number three, with Mr Millais pointing out there are a number of large global companies finding ways to make money from cutting greenhouse gas pollution.

Rounding out the top five is the role of the media, and energy security and oil prices, according to the report. These are followed by international policy, carbon profits and clean energy.

Popular culture is considered the ninth most significant trend in the shift in the climate change fight. The issue had up until recently been “pretty boring”, Mr Millais admitted, but celebrities such as Orlando Bloom were now the faces of global warming campaigns.

But this isn't a trend that has taken off in Australia, he added.

“It's an irony that the US is ahead with popular culture,” Mr Millais said. “There will be a bitter aftertaste for Australia because the American position has changed, but Australia is still in the olden days...”

Morality comes in at number 10, with Mr Millais pointing out that climate change is “not just a green-left issue anymore”. “This is an end-of-the-world type issue which involves everybody,” he said.