Climate Change Minister Greg Combet has talked up China and the Asia-Pacific region as major future partners in combating climate change as he dismissed gloomy forecasts for any international treaty that succeeds the Kyoto Protocol.
Mr Combet talked down recent international reports that wealthy nations had given up on any international climate treaty before 2020 and said he had received a number of calls from international counterparts after Australia passed its carbon pricing scheme this month.
Before the two-week Durban climate conference that starts on Monday Mr Combet said his main goals would be linking Australia’s pricing scheme to international markets to keep the price down for Australian businesses, and making progress on talks for a post-Kyoto deal on binding carbon targets.
China and the US are the world’s largest carbon emitters. China wants rich countries to continue with mandatory targets while keeping only voluntary targets for itself and other emerging economies such as India and Brazil. The US rejects any binding deal that excludes major emerging economies.
But Mr Combet said China’s action on climate change was encouraging and the Asia-Pacific region was already evolving as a healthy carbon market.
”The test is with this: what are the Chinese doing? Yes they’ve got growing emissions … but they are making massive investments in clean energy sources.
”They are decommissioning older, high-polluting power stations and commissioning new, cleaner power stations and … now they’re moving to carbon pricing through six emissions trading schemes.”
China is now the world’s leading investor in clean energy technology with $US54 billion invested last year, according to the Pew Environment Group. It has set up a number of provincial emissions trading pilot schemes with a view to a national scheme from 2019.
”We enjoy working with China. They’re getting on with things. Obviously internationally they’re very important in these discussions,” Mr Combet said.
”I’ll be wanting to have a discussion with my [Chinese] counterpart about their emissions trading schemes … and if we can provide any assistance. We’ve had some officials in China recently having those sorts of discussions.”
Mr Combet said he had received inquiries from many countries about the carbon tax. Asked whether he agreed with the prediction that there would be no international treaty this decade he said: ”No, not necessarily. We’ve put a submission in, in partnership with Norway, that aspires to get us there far earlier.”
He reiterated that Australia requires binding targets with mandatory cuts by all the major emitters.
Other Asia-Pacific countries and individual states were setting up emissions trading schemes, he said, including New Zealand, California, some Canadian provinces and South Korea.
Opposition climate action spokesman Greg Hunt repeated his call for the government to rework the modelling on the carbon tax’s effect on Australian households and businesses.
