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APEC - "aspirational" only
Walk Against Warming - Sydney, 4 Nov.06 - photo by Sam Hendel
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website: www.climatecampaign.info |
Archive Take Action Now APEC - "aspirational" only |
Walk Against Warming - Sydney, 4 Nov.06 - photo by Sam Hendel
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The recent Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Sydney was attended by 21 heads of government of Pacific Rim economies.
APEC's goal is 'zero trade and investment barriers' in the Asia Pacific region. It puts the rights of corporations above the rights of people and the environment, ignoring commitments to labour conventions and environmental standards, often overriding regulations and policies that protect people and the environment.
APEC countries account for 60% of global energy demand, so it was fitting that a major focus of the Sydney APEC meeting was energy security and climate change. Unfortunately John Howard has used APEC to undermine any real action on climate change.
APEC has an Energy Working Group that meets twice a year.
This group rejects the Kyoto Protocol climate change strategy and advocates
'clean coal' and nuclear energy as the solutions to global warming.
At a recent meeting in Darwin, nuclear energy solutions continued to receive
broad support while the wind and solar industries were not even represented.
At the Sydney APEC meeting, world leaders backed a weak plan to set an 'aspirational' goal to cut greenhouse gases, rather than adopting firm targets. However, their Declaration did fall short of the aim of Howard and Bush to ditch the Kyoto Protocol altogether and move to a "post Kyoto framework".
Chinese President Hu Jintao bluntly told John Howard that the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol was the legal basis for any international co-operation on climate change.
In spite of John Howard attacking the Kyoto Protocol as "never having the capacity to deliver", President Hu insisted that developed countries should face their historical responsibility and their high per capita emissions, and strictly abide by their emission reduction targets set forth in the Kyoto Protocol (Sydney Morning Herald 10.9.07).
Greenpeace has criticised the Declaration, saying that -
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The aspirational goals on energy efficiency, support of 'clean coal' and nuclear power are vague and appear to be designed more to make John Howard and George W Bush look good to their domestic audiences than actually tackling climate change. |
Greenpeace are calling it "the Sydney Distraction".
A copy of the prepared email to Malcolm Turnbull, Minister for the Environment, with a cc. to Peter Garrett (Shadow Minister for Climate Change) is shown below.
Regards from the Citizens Climate Campaign Committee
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The Hon. Malcolm Turnbull, Dear Mr Turnbull, I call on the Australian government to ratify the Kyoto Protocol and start working responsibly with the majority of other countries to urgently tackle climate change. Firm and binding emission targets in greenhouse gas emissions must be set for any meaningful cuts to occur. The 'aspirational goals' adopted by the APEC leaders will be useless in achieving the necessary cuts. They are empty rhetoric, to obscure the fact that it is really just 'business as usual' to support the vested interests of the coal and related energy intensive industries. When will the government start giving significant regulatory and financial incentives to the renewable energy industry, as it does to coal and related energy intensive industries? The renewable energy industry must be included in APEC's Energy Working Group. Without their inclusion, it is obvious to the Australian public that your Government has no real commitment to dealing with climate change. Name: |