Climate Progress has reported from Poznan that
Dr. Harlon Watson, a political appointee by the Bush Administration and lead negotiator in Poznan, has continued to reject emissions targets with base years attached, and is working with U.S. allies (Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand) to stall negotiations. These actions actively jeopardize our future.
This is somewhat different to Bali in 2007 when it was reported in the Sydney Morning Herald that
THE Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, signalled his support for developed countries, including Australia, agreeing to making deep cuts in their greenhouse gas emissions in the next 12 years.
In a significant move last night the Australian delegation to the UN climate talks stated it “fully supports” the proposal that developed countries need to cut their greenhouse gas emission by 25 to 40 per cent by 2020.
The world will have to wait until December 15 to find out about Australia’s targets when the Australian government releases its White Paper. If Treasury’s modeled scenario’s are any guide, then the most likely targets for Australia to announce will be between 5% and 15% reductions by 2020. The Australian government had announced that it would be releasing targets before the negotiations at Poznan. It is now waiting until afterwards.
The Australian government has also been criticised for taking a hypocritical position on forestry at these negotiations.
Update: John Hepburn, from Crikey’s Rooted blog, has reported that Australian delegates have hardly said a word – apart from suggesting time-wasting agenda changes, and have barely participated in negotiations (possibly spending more time at the bar).
Further Update: Submissions to the UNFCCC Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-Term Cooperative Action (AHG-LCA) from different countries are available from here.
Further Update: The Guardian reports that Australia, along with the US, New Zealand and Canada, have deleted a line about indigenous peoples’ rights from a draft agreement on protecting forests. The original confidential draft, seen by the Guardian, talked of “noting the rights and importance of engaging indigenous peoples and other local communities”. The amended version mentions only “recognising the need to promote the full and effective participation of indigenous and local communities”.
December 9, 2008 at 1:27 am
WHAT IS GALILEO DOING TONIGHT?
I find it irresistible not to at least take a moment to wonder aloud about what Galileo is doing tonight. My hope would be that the great man is resting in peace and that his head is not spinning in his grave. How, now, can Galileo possibly find peace when so many top-rank scientists refuse to speak out clearly, loudly and often regarding whatsoever they believe to be true about the distinctly human-induced, global predicament presented to the family of humanity in our time by certain unbridled “overgrowth” activities of the human species from which global challenges visibly issue now and loom ominously on the far horizon?
Where are the thousands of scientists who have a responsibility to stand up with those who developed virtual mountains of good scientific research regarding overconsumption, overproduction and overpopulation activities of the human species that are now overspreading and threatening to engulf the Earth.
Perhaps there is something in the great and everlasting work of many silent scientists that will give Galileo a moment of peace in our time.
What would the world we inhabit look like if scientists like Galileo adopted a code of silence, speaking only about scientific evidence which was politically convenient, economically expedient, religiously condoned and socially correct?
Steven Earl Salmony
AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population,
established 2001
http://sustainabilityscience.org/content.html?contentid=1176