[News] from [guardian.co.uk]
[Environment > Climate change]
Climate change bill splits Australia's Liberal party
Opposition divided over greenhouse gas legislation with senior MPs resigning and challenging party leadership
Associated Press
guardian.co.uk, Friday 27 November 2009 11.26 GMT
Australia's opposition party has splintered over a contentious bill aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions, with top officials resigning due to the party leader's support for the legislation.
The lack of consensus in the opposition Liberal party stymied Friday's Senate vote on the issue, scuppering the government's aims. The debate will now resume on Monday.
Julia Gillard, the deputy prime minister, said the government was deeply disappointed that the Liberal party had failed to honour a deal made by itsleader, Malcolm Turnbull, to pass the legislation, stating: "Australia can't afford any more delays on climate change."
Australia is one of the world's worst carbon dioxide polluters per capita because of its heavy reliance on abundant coal reserves. As the driest continent after Antarctica, it is also considered one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change.
Kevin Rudd, the prime minister, has made climate change issues a priority for his government, and said he wants the legislation passed as an example to the world before he attends next month's UN summit in Copenhagen.
Turnbull had pledged the Liberal party's support for the bill, but the majority of his MPs oppose it. They want more time to amend the legislation and, with Turnbull refusing to back down, 10 politicians resigned their positions late on Thursday. Liberal legislator Tony Abbott said on Friday that if Turnbull did not change his mind on the legislation, he would call a leadership challenge on Monday.
Turnbull, who survived a leadership challenge over the same issue on Wednesday, said he would not quit nor change his mind. "I will not take a backward step [because] there's too much at stake," he told the Seven network.
"The people that are opposing me within the party do not believe in climate change at all. They are turning back the clock and Australians will punish us very, very severely at the next election if these guys have their way and we go to the election as the 'do nothing on climate change' party."
Only seven of the 32 Liberal party senators are needed to pass the legislation, but the bill never even made it to a vote on Friday thanks to long-winded speeches by those who oppose it.
"What we have seen is deliberate filibustering, a refusal to progress the bill, a refusal to get on with this legislation," said Chris Evans, the government Senate leader.
After an earlier version of the bill failed to pass the Senate in August, a compromise deal increases financial assistance to major polluters, including electricity generators, and ensures that farmers are not taxed for the methane produced by livestock.
The government plan would institute a tax on industries' carbon emissions starting in 2011 and limit Australia's overall pollution. The government wants to slash Australia's emissions by up to 25% on 2000 levels by 2020, if the United Nations can agree on tough global targets at a Copenhagen summit in December.
If the Senate rejects legislation twice in three months, Australia's constitution allows the prime minister to call a snap election before his three-year term has expired. Rudd has said he does not want an early election but anaylists suggest he could call one early next year to capitalise on his popularity if the bill fails.
[News > World news > Brazil]
Brazilian president says 'gringos' must pay to protect Amazon
Speaking before Amazon summit, Lula calls on industrialised countries to provide financial help to halt deforestation
Associated Press
guardian.co.uk, Friday 27 November 2009 12.02 GMT
Brazil's president said today that "gringos" should pay Amazon nations to prevent deforestation, insisting rich western countries had caused much more environmental destruction than the loggers and farmers who cut and burn trees in the world's largest tropical rainforest.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was speaking before an Amazon summit at which delegates signed a declaration calling for financial help from the industrialised world to halt deforestation, which contributes to global warming.
"I don't want any gringo asking us to let an Amazon resident die of hunger under a tree," Lula said. "We want to preserve, but they will have to pay the price for this preservation because we never destroyed our forest like they mowed theirs down a century ago."
In Brazil, the word "gringo" generally refers to anyone from the northern hemisphere.
Lula convened the meeting to form a unified position on deforestation and climate change for seven Amazon countries before the Copenhagen climate summit. But the only leaders who attended were Guyana's Bharrat Jagdeo and France's Nicolas Sarkozy, representing French Guiana, leaving top Lula aides and environmentalists to admit the gathering will have a muted impact.
Other countries sent vice-presidents or ministers, and the presidents of Colombia and Venezuela embarrassed Brazil by cancelling at the last minute.
Sarkozy supported a recent proposal by Lula to create a financial transaction tax that would be used to build a fund to help developing countries protect their forests. Details will be discussed in Copenhagen.
Despite the lacklustre summit showing, Lula aides said it was important to drive home a message that the Amazon is home to 30 million people, most of whom depend on the forest's natural riches to eke out a living. About 25 million live in Brazil's portion.
"In Europe everyone has opinions about the Amazon, and there are people who think the Amazon is a zoo where you have to pay to enter," said Marco Aurelio Garcia, Lula's top foreign policy adviser. "They don't know there are 30 million who work there."
Brazil has managed to reduce Amazon destruction to about 7,000 square kilometres a year, the lowest level in decades. But that is still larger than the US state of Delaware.
The Brazilian Amazon is arguably the world's biggest natural defence against global warming, acting as an absorber of carbon dioxide. But it is also a big contributor to warming because about 75% of Brazil's emissions come from rainforest clearing, as vegetation burns and felled trees rot.
Brazil has an incentive to protect the Amazon because the new global climate agreement is expected to reward countries for "avoided deforestation" with cash or credits that can be traded on the global carbon market.
Norway will give Brazil $1bn (£600m) by 2015 to preserve the Amazon rainforest, as long as Latin America's largest country keeps trying to stop deforestation.
Norway was the first to supply cash to an Amazon preservation fund which Brazilian officials hope will raise $21bn to protect nature reserves, persuade loggers and farmers to stop destroying trees, and finance scientific and technological projects.
Brazilian environment minister Carlos Minc has said Japan, Sweden, Germany, South Korea and Switzerland are considering donating to the fund.
[Environment > Climate change]
Scientists target Canada over climate change
Damian Carrington
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 26 November 2009 22.54 GMT
Prominent campaigners, politicians and scientists have called for Canada to be suspended from the Commonwealth over its climate change policies.
The coalition's demand came before this weekend's Commonwealth heads of government summit in Trinidad and Tobago, at which global warming will top the agenda, and next month's UN climate conference in Copenhagen. Despite criticism of Canada's environmental policies, the prime minister, Stephen Harper, is to attend the Copenhagen summit. His spokesman said today: "We will be attending the Copenhagen meeting … a critical mass of world leaders will be attending."
Canada's per capita greenhouse gas emissions are among the world's highest and it will not meet the cut required under the Kyoto protocol: by 2007 its emissions were 34% above its reduction target. It is exploiting its vast tar sands reserves to produce oil, a process said to cause at least three times the emissions of conventional oil extraction.
The coalition claims Canada is contributing to droughts, floods and sea level rises in Commonwealth countries such as Bangladesh, the Maldives and Mozambique. Clare Short, the former international development secretary, said: "Countries that fail to help [tackle global warming] should be suspended from membership, as are those that breach human rights."
The World Development Movement, the Polaris Institute in Canada and Greenpeace are among the organisations supporting the plan. Saleemul Huq, a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said: "If the Commonwealth is serious about holding its members to account, then threatening the lives of millions of people in developing countries should lead to the suspension of Canada's membership immediately."
Canada's environment department refused to comment on the call for it to be suspended.
The Commonwealth comprises 53 states representing 2 billion people. In the past it has suspended Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and South Africa for electoral or human rights reasons. Speaking earlier this week, its secretary general, Kamalesh Sharma, said: "I would like to think that our definition of serious violations could embrace much more than it does now."
[Environment > Climate change]
Climate change bill splits Australia's Liberal party
Opposition divided over greenhouse gas legislation with senior MPs resigning and challenging party leadership
Associated Press
guardian.co.uk, Friday 27 November 2009 11.26 GMT
Australia's opposition party has splintered over a contentious bill aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions, with top officials resigning due to the party leader's support for the legislation.
The lack of consensus in the opposition Liberal party stymied Friday's Senate vote on the issue, scuppering the government's aims. The debate will now resume on Monday.
Julia Gillard, the deputy prime minister, said the government was deeply disappointed that the Liberal party had failed to honour a deal made by itsleader, Malcolm Turnbull, to pass the legislation, stating: "Australia can't afford any more delays on climate change."
Australia is one of the world's worst carbon dioxide polluters per capita because of its heavy reliance on abundant coal reserves. As the driest continent after Antarctica, it is also considered one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change.
Kevin Rudd, the prime minister, has made climate change issues a priority for his government, and said he wants the legislation passed as an example to the world before he attends next month's UN summit in Copenhagen.
Turnbull had pledged the Liberal party's support for the bill, but the majority of his MPs oppose it. They want more time to amend the legislation and, with Turnbull refusing to back down, 10 politicians resigned their positions late on Thursday. Liberal legislator Tony Abbott said on Friday that if Turnbull did not change his mind on the legislation, he would call a leadership challenge on Monday.
Turnbull, who survived a leadership challenge over the same issue on Wednesday, said he would not quit nor change his mind. "I will not take a backward step [because] there's too much at stake," he told the Seven network.
"The people that are opposing me within the party do not believe in climate change at all. They are turning back the clock and Australians will punish us very, very severely at the next election if these guys have their way and we go to the election as the 'do nothing on climate change' party."
Only seven of the 32 Liberal party senators are needed to pass the legislation, but the bill never even made it to a vote on Friday thanks to long-winded speeches by those who oppose it.
"What we have seen is deliberate filibustering, a refusal to progress the bill, a refusal to get on with this legislation," said Chris Evans, the government Senate leader.
After an earlier version of the bill failed to pass the Senate in August, a compromise deal increases financial assistance to major polluters, including electricity generators, and ensures that farmers are not taxed for the methane produced by livestock.
The government plan would institute a tax on industries' carbon emissions starting in 2011 and limit Australia's overall pollution. The government wants to slash Australia's emissions by up to 25% on 2000 levels by 2020, if the United Nations can agree on tough global targets at a Copenhagen summit in December.
If the Senate rejects legislation twice in three months, Australia's constitution allows the prime minister to call a snap election before his three-year term has expired. Rudd has said he does not want an early election but anaylists suggest he could call one early next year to capitalise on his popularity if the bill fails.
[News > World news > Brazil]
Brazilian president says 'gringos' must pay to protect Amazon
Speaking before Amazon summit, Lula calls on industrialised countries to provide financial help to halt deforestation
Associated Press
guardian.co.uk, Friday 27 November 2009 12.02 GMT
Brazil's president said today that "gringos" should pay Amazon nations to prevent deforestation, insisting rich western countries had caused much more environmental destruction than the loggers and farmers who cut and burn trees in the world's largest tropical rainforest.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was speaking before an Amazon summit at which delegates signed a declaration calling for financial help from the industrialised world to halt deforestation, which contributes to global warming.
"I don't want any gringo asking us to let an Amazon resident die of hunger under a tree," Lula said. "We want to preserve, but they will have to pay the price for this preservation because we never destroyed our forest like they mowed theirs down a century ago."
In Brazil, the word "gringo" generally refers to anyone from the northern hemisphere.
Lula convened the meeting to form a unified position on deforestation and climate change for seven Amazon countries before the Copenhagen climate summit. But the only leaders who attended were Guyana's Bharrat Jagdeo and France's Nicolas Sarkozy, representing French Guiana, leaving top Lula aides and environmentalists to admit the gathering will have a muted impact.
Other countries sent vice-presidents or ministers, and the presidents of Colombia and Venezuela embarrassed Brazil by cancelling at the last minute.
Sarkozy supported a recent proposal by Lula to create a financial transaction tax that would be used to build a fund to help developing countries protect their forests. Details will be discussed in Copenhagen.
Despite the lacklustre summit showing, Lula aides said it was important to drive home a message that the Amazon is home to 30 million people, most of whom depend on the forest's natural riches to eke out a living. About 25 million live in Brazil's portion.
"In Europe everyone has opinions about the Amazon, and there are people who think the Amazon is a zoo where you have to pay to enter," said Marco Aurelio Garcia, Lula's top foreign policy adviser. "They don't know there are 30 million who work there."
Brazil has managed to reduce Amazon destruction to about 7,000 square kilometres a year, the lowest level in decades. But that is still larger than the US state of Delaware.
The Brazilian Amazon is arguably the world's biggest natural defence against global warming, acting as an absorber of carbon dioxide. But it is also a big contributor to warming because about 75% of Brazil's emissions come from rainforest clearing, as vegetation burns and felled trees rot.
Brazil has an incentive to protect the Amazon because the new global climate agreement is expected to reward countries for "avoided deforestation" with cash or credits that can be traded on the global carbon market.
Norway will give Brazil $1bn (£600m) by 2015 to preserve the Amazon rainforest, as long as Latin America's largest country keeps trying to stop deforestation.
Norway was the first to supply cash to an Amazon preservation fund which Brazilian officials hope will raise $21bn to protect nature reserves, persuade loggers and farmers to stop destroying trees, and finance scientific and technological projects.
Brazilian environment minister Carlos Minc has said Japan, Sweden, Germany, South Korea and Switzerland are considering donating to the fund.
[Environment > Climate change]
Scientists target Canada over climate change
Damian Carrington
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 26 November 2009 22.54 GMT
Prominent campaigners, politicians and scientists have called for Canada to be suspended from the Commonwealth over its climate change policies.
The coalition's demand came before this weekend's Commonwealth heads of government summit in Trinidad and Tobago, at which global warming will top the agenda, and next month's UN climate conference in Copenhagen. Despite criticism of Canada's environmental policies, the prime minister, Stephen Harper, is to attend the Copenhagen summit. His spokesman said today: "We will be attending the Copenhagen meeting … a critical mass of world leaders will be attending."
Canada's per capita greenhouse gas emissions are among the world's highest and it will not meet the cut required under the Kyoto protocol: by 2007 its emissions were 34% above its reduction target. It is exploiting its vast tar sands reserves to produce oil, a process said to cause at least three times the emissions of conventional oil extraction.
The coalition claims Canada is contributing to droughts, floods and sea level rises in Commonwealth countries such as Bangladesh, the Maldives and Mozambique. Clare Short, the former international development secretary, said: "Countries that fail to help [tackle global warming] should be suspended from membership, as are those that breach human rights."
The World Development Movement, the Polaris Institute in Canada and Greenpeace are among the organisations supporting the plan. Saleemul Huq, a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said: "If the Commonwealth is serious about holding its members to account, then threatening the lives of millions of people in developing countries should lead to the suspension of Canada's membership immediately."
Canada's environment department refused to comment on the call for it to be suspended.
The Commonwealth comprises 53 states representing 2 billion people. In the past it has suspended Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and South Africa for electoral or human rights reasons. Speaking earlier this week, its secretary general, Kamalesh Sharma, said: "I would like to think that our definition of serious violations could embrace much more than it does now."
※コメント投稿者のブログIDはブログ作成者のみに通知されます