LETTER: Howard luke-warm

Below is a letter from Phillip Walker, St Kilda East, that was published in The Age on Sunday July 8, 2007. I think he sums up John Howard's complete lack of action on addressing climate change, and his political maneouvering on the topic. I think is completely unacceptable for the Australian Government to avoid setting targets for reducing carbon emissions for 2010, 2020 and 2050 despite clear scientific evidence that the future of our planet is now at stake.

And Labor's avoidance of setting 2020 targets makes them not much different from John Howard.

Letter text follows:

The report in The Sunday Age (1/7), "PM warms to his task", highlights the Liberal approach, which is a diversion that will not reduce Australia's carbon emissions to the levels required to stop catastrophic global warming.

Dealing with climate change is an international issue and that requires working through international institutions. As Michael Raupach noted (The Age, 25/6), "the biggest value of the (1997 Kyoto) protocol was its effort to build social capital".

Howard's APEC initiative undermines international efforts and of the 16 Pacific island countries, only PNG is a member. This means the Pacific countries that are in the forefront of coping with the negative consequences of climate change are excluded from the negotiation process.

It appears unlikely that Australia will meet the Kyoto commitments, which even permitted us to increase greenhouse emissions by 8 per cent on 1990 levels. As it is, Australia's per capita emissions are 4.5 times the global average, second only to the US.

The criticism of Labor for failing to set a mid-term (2020-30) reduction target is accurate. What is not mentioned is that the Liberals have neither a medium nor a long-term target for greenhouse emissions reduction.

Similarly, a national emission trading scheme needs to have stringent limits and be applicable to all emitters. Howard has put the start date off for five years, has not yet set limits, and will not apply it to all industrial emitters, which is self-defeating.

Scientific consensus is that we have 10-15 years to get it right on climate change and that we need to limit global warming to 20 degrees Celsius, a target both Liberal and Labor are silent on.

What Australia does need is leadership that provides a clear strategy for steady reduction in greenhouse emissions, and the political will to apply it. That's why I'll be voting for the Greens.

Source