Australian Opposition says Copenhagen vindication for no ETS
Updated
In Australia, the Opposition says the Copenhagen summit was a comprehensive failure and vindication for its stance against the Government's Emissions Trading Scheme. It says Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's justification for an ETS has now been stripped away because of the worlds' failure to strike a binding deal. The Greens have also slammed the outcome.
Presenter: Samantha Hawley
Speakers: Greg Hunt, Opposition climate change spokesman; Barnaby Joyce, senator, National Party; Bob Brown, senator, Greens Party
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HAWLEY: The Prime Minister flew back into Australia late [Sunday] night after days of what he describes as the toughest negotiations he's ever been involved in. Kevin Rudd's upbeat about the so-called Copenhagen Accord, saying more needs to be done but it represents a significant global agreement. Others aren't as positive.
JOYCE: Well, I don't know whether it's an A-chord. I think it's kind of a D-flat. What it is, is a farce.
HAWLEY: The Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce says he's just glad the Government didn't get its wish to take an emissions trading scheme to Denmark.
JOYCE: Remember Mr Rudd said that it was terribly important that we have the ETS in place? If we had we'd be sitting out there all alone by ourselves at the moment and looking decidedly ridiculous.
HAWLEY: It's a predictable response, but the Copenhagen outcome has done no favours for a government that's committed to reintroducing it's emissions trading scheme legislation to the Parliament for a third time next year. Bob Brown say after the failures of the world climate summit the Greens are now Labor's only hope of getting the legislation through and it's time to start negotiating.
BROWN: To set the target which is appropriate to stopping the world going beyond 1.5 degrees and that means a 40 degree target.
HAWLEY: And are you willing to go down from there, Bob Brown, because the Government clearly will not go that high?
BROWN: The Government will not go beyond the 5 to 25 per cent reduction level that it's had flagged for some months now. It's refused to negotiate on targets. The Greens have always been prepared to negotiate.
HAWLEY: And how low are you prepared to go?
BROWN: Oh, look, we have said the range 25 to 40 per cent - 25 being if there's no world agreement.
HAWLEY: The Government currently has an emissions reduction target range of five to 25 per cent. But Kevin Rudd will announce a final figure by February the first next year once other nations reveal what their targets are. The Opposition's climate change spokesman, Greg Hunt, says he'll get bipartisan support on that.
HUNT: That's not an issue of fighting between the two sides.
HAWLEY: But the Opposition says Copenhagen was a comprehensive failure and it vindicates its stance against an ETS.
HUNT: Prime Minister is, perhaps more than almost any other world leader, overstating what is a disappointing outcome. He should be upfront with the Australian people, acknowledge it's disappointing, not overstate...
HAWLEY: He has shown his disappointment, though, hasn't he. He says it's a significant global agreement but much more needs to be done. I mean, he hasn't hidden his disappointment about this.
HUNT: I think perhaps more than almost any other global leader, Australia's Prime Minister has been trying to present what is a sow's ear as a silk purse.
HAWLEY: Do you think the outcome in Copenhagen kills off an emissions trading scheme in Australia?
HUNT: I think that Kevin Rudd should face up to facts that his justification for an ETS has now been taken away.
HAWLEY: The former opposition leader, Malcolm Turnbull is still advocating for his party to support a trading scheme. In an internet blog he's fired another shot at the Liberal Party leadership. In it Mr Turnbull says "we are certainly a lot closer to an international agreement today... and the ETS as amended deserves support."
