Australian opposition claims ETS stance vindicated by Copenhagen failure
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/12/21/2777214.htm?section=justin
The Federal Opposition says the Copenhagen summit was a comprehensive failure and a vindication of its stance against the Government’s emissions trading scheme (ETS).
The talks in the Danish capital ended with a political accord rather than a binding agreement, with developed countries required to set emissions reduction targets by February.
The Opposition says the global failure to strike a binding deal strips away Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s justification for trying to introduce an emissions trading scheme in Australia.
“The Prime Minister is, perhaps more than almost any other world leader, overstating what is a disappointing outcome,” Opposition climate change spokesman Greg Hunt said.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says the outcome shows their vote against the emissions trading scheme is now vindicated.
“It does show that Mr Rudd was really very, very unwise to want to rush us into this emissions tax prior to knowing what the rest of the world wanted to do,” he said.
“I know that I shouldn’t sound self-congratulatory and I am trying not to, but I do think the Senate was right not to pass the legislation.
“What the rest of the world has shown in Copenhagen [is] it’s not sure about the way forward either, and the problem with rushing into an ETS without comparable commitments from other countries was going to be that we would damage Australian industries and Australian jobs without actually improving the environment.”
The Greens have also slammed the outcome of the UN climate meeting and say the Government’s only chance of getting its trading scheme through the Parliament is to lift its emissions reduction targets and get the Greens onside in the Senate.
Mr Rudd flew back into the Australia late last night after days of what he described as the toughest negotiations he had ever been involved in.
He was upbeat about the so-called Copenhagen Accord, saying more needs to be done, but it represents a significant global agreement.
Others are not as positive.
Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce says he is just glad the Government did not get its wish to take an emissions trading scheme to Denmark.
“Well I don’t whether it’s an ‘accord’, I think it’s kind of a ‘D flat’. What it is is a farce,” he said.
“Remember Mr Rudd said 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.”
It is a predictable response, but the Copenhagen outcome has done no favours for a Government that is committed to reintroducing its emissions trading scheme legislation to the Parliament for a third time next year.
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i tend to agree with them..rudd was in such a rush to get the ETS passed before cop15..why?..we would have been the laughing stock of the world..attaching ourselves to targets that no-one else in the world would be adopting on science that isnt proven..rudd should resign..disgaraceful lies and trying to do a con job on the australian public..
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