Australia Makes Some Proposal Headway on Climate Issues
Climate Change Minister Penny Wong (Australia)The climate change debate is heating up… As in any debate, there are two basic sides, a few key players and a few folks who fall in between. As for the climate change debate: In this corner, developed/ industrialized nations who know they need to make some emissions cuts but are also good at business, understand their advantage and how they got it, and understand the cuts they agree to cannot deflate their economic and strategic advantages over the other countries that are still developing- not only do they need labor, they need to keep costs down- any kind of cap & trade or emissions cuts for rich countries that doesn’t apply to developing countries as well means a loss of market advantage.
In the other corner, we have the developing nations- for the Kyoto Protocol, this included India and China. That was a major sticking point for the U.S., probably the main reason we didn’t ratify the Protocol, and is still at the heart of the issue. Since China is now the number One emitter of carbon emissions in the world, I wouldn’t look for them to be unrestricted by any means after this next summit- if there is a deal. But the other developing nations, with or without India, are pointing the finger at the whole of the industrialized world saying something along the lines of, “You did this, what are you going to do now to rectify it?” The message is a mix between: Make some cuts so that the problem gets better, and, don’t even think that we, as still developing countries, are going to put up with emissions cuts so that we can’t develop industrially just so you can keep your economic advantage. We may be poor but we are not stupid.
The major players? The U.S., the EU, China, and Russia. Beyond that, everyone at the G20. Notice who’s missing? Every developing country out there.
The balance of power is solidly in the developed countries’ court. What can you really do if you are at the bottom of the power chain?- demand money from Industrialized nations to fix the problems, then demand the right to keep industrializing, then ask them to limit themselves because they already had their turn? We’ll see about that.
Australia, seeing this as the sticking point and wanting to do something about it well before the Copenhagen climate summit comes to pass, or roost, has released a plan of their own. I have to give them credit for pushing the heart of the matter.
Nice job. Their plan basically says that rich nations have to make cuts and poor nations don’t- why? Because they are taking the line that the world cannot tell poor countries to stay poor. Australia’s plan allows developing nations to not make commitments and just make their own schedule. Australia’s own Green party is not happy.
“It's helping developed countries soft pedal on their own targets. Australia's target of 5 per cent, there's noone lower than that. They're saying to the developing countries, you tell us how best you're going to reduce your increase in emissions,” said Greens Senator Bob Brown.
“It is not an appropriate policy to say to people you have to stay poor. What we have to do is to enable development on a low carbon path and that is what this is encouraging,” said Australia’s Climate Change Minister Penny Wong to Sky News.
It’s getting interesting.
