Antinuclear

Kyoto protocol still the world’s only climate change treaty

But there are some good news stories from the latest Kyoto round….

Australia is doing right by the Kyoto protocol. But we must run faster up the down escalator…..

The issue should be beyond politics.

The road to a living planet still passes through Kyoto http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/editorial/the-road-to-a-living-planet-still-passes-through-kyoto-20121216-2bhgo.html December 17, 2012 THE world won’t come to an end this Friday, despite the Mayans’ prognostications. Not only that, it will be reborn 11 days later. Yes, on January 1, the second phase of the Kyoto protocol comes into force.

Kyoto is still the world’s only climate change treaty but, while only seven years old, it already looks a bit old hat.
Kevin Rudd signed up for Australia five years ago this month. Things haven’t got much better for the present Prime Minister, or the treaty. Russia, Japan, Canada and New Zealand declined to agree to a second commitment period under the protocol. Yes, even Japan doesn’t love Kyoto. With that sort of reverse momentum, the latest talks on the
treaty, in the Qatari capital Doha, ended on December 8 with little
fanfare, certainly nothing to drown out the sighs of anyone worried
about our planet. And worry is justified. A leaked draft of the next
big global Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report shows it
is now ”virtually certain” that human greenhouse gas emissions trap
energy that warms the planet.
The draft expresses even more confidence than its 2007 report that
changes being observed on the planet are historically ”significant,
unusual or unprecedented”. The IPCC says it has a high level of
confidence that average global temperatures will rise by one to 3.7
degrees by 2081-2100.
But the Kyoto protocol covers only 15 per cent of the world’s
emissions. Basically we’re back to the European Union and Australia
operating with binding targets. Take in Ukraine, Switzerland and
Norway and it’s a grand tally of 35 countries out of nearly 200. The
US is still not on board. And fellow non-signatories India and China,
with 37 per cent of humanity, are industrialising their way back to
the dominance they held in the world economy two centuries ago.
Yet Australia sent a lowly cabinet secretary to the Doha talks. With
our target unchanged – we must reduce emissions by at least 5 per cent
by 2020, from 2000 levels – the Lucky Country hits the jackpot even
when we don’t try.
There is little doubt the issue has lost impetus. The young people who
turned Al ”An Inconvenient Truth” Gore into the first climate-change
rock star in 2006 are worrying about the micro more than the macro. A
survey of 15,000 people aged 15 to 19 found their biggest concern was
finding a job to support their (future) families. The environment was
way down the list of concerns, rating sixth after being first in the
previous two years.
No one could blame them when we regard their elders and betters.
The Coalition opposition offers the siren call of ”direct action” on
the environment, with no carbon tax. On the Labor side, much of the
electorate’s perception of Julia Gillard as untrustworthy comes from
her broken pledge to ”never ever” introduce a carbon tax.

But there are some good news stories from the latest Kyoto round. We
have even been presented with the prospect that the big holdouts –
including the US, China and India – could set themselves binding
emissions targets in 2015 to come into force in 2020. Rich countries
have pledged $100 billion to help poor countries but that too was
pushed out to 2020, an eternity when such ugly matters as money are
concerned. Australia is doing right by the Kyoto protocol. But we must run faster up the down escalator. We remain saddled with the tag of
highest per capita emitter. Even allowing for disputes over the
methodology, 22.6 million people living a European lifestyle on a hot,
dry continent can do a lot better.
The issue should be beyond politics. Labor has the carbon tax on the
credit side of its ledger but the hard bit still awaits, in
implementing the right disincentives to polluting behaviour so we see
tangible cuts in emissions rather than symbolic ones.
Still set fair on becoming our next prime minister, Tony Abbott must
decide when a sharp stick against opponents becomes an albatross
around his neck. In other words, ditch the ”blood pledge” to dump
the carbon tax.

December 17, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | General News