Australia reaffirms 5-per cent carbon reduction target
Earthtimes | 28 Jan 2010
Sydney - Australia on Thursday reaffirmed its commitment to cutting carbon-dioxide emissions by 5 per cent on 2000 levels by 2020. The government put on the table an option to raise the target to 25 per cent if China and other big emitters make comparable promises and agree to checks to ensure that commitments are met.
The promise of unilateral action comes before the February 1 deadline United Nations deadline for voluntary commitments, set at December's climate chance conference in Copenhagen.
The Copenhagen meeting broke up without mandatory targets but with participants asked to set their own interim targets for reducing the greenhouse-gas emissions that cause climate change.
The European Union has committed to a 20-per-cent cut, and the United States has promised a reduction estimated at 3-4 per cent.
The 5-per-cent cut has bipartisan support, but the opposition Liberal Party is still committed to voting down legislation for a carbon-trading scheme that the Labor government says is necessary to meet its commitment.
A bill will be brought before Parliament again next week and is expected to be rejected once more. The draft legislation has already passed the lower House of Representatives, where Labor has a majority, but is stalled in the upper chamber, the Senate, where minor parties hold the balance of power.
Australia, the world's largest exporter of coal, is also among the biggest per capita polluters. It has an average annual output of 20.5 tons of carbon dioxide per person, compared to 19.7 tons for the United States, 4.5 tons for China and 1.1 tons for India.
The emissions trading scheme would start in July 2011 and set a low, fixed starting price on carbon that effectively delays the creation of a carbon market by another year.
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