Australia’s international commitment to tackling climate change is in doubt with the Abbott government refusing to say if a senior bureaucrat will lead a key meeting of a giant new United Nations fund for developing nations.
Ewen McDonald, acting director-general of Australia’s main aid arm AusAID, is scheduled to co-chair the board meeting of next month’s Global Climate Fund in Paris.
The fund is intended to become a conduit for state and private funds of up to $US100 billion ($106 billion) a year by 2020 to help poorer nations shift to low-carbon energy.
”The [fund’s] Interim Secretariat expects that Mr McDonald will attend and co-chair the meeting,” said a spokeswoman for the fund.
AusAID’s executive, though, would not say whether Mr McDonald will take his leadership role in France. The Department of Foreign Affairs, which Prime Minister Tony Abbott directed to absorb AusAID, also refused to comment. Greg Hunt, the new environment minister, referring to Australia’s support for the fund refused to say if Mr McDonald would go to the Paris meeting.
Opposition climate spokesman Mark Butler said Kevin Rudd’s first act as PM in 2007 was to ratify the Kyoto Protocol to stop climate change. By contrast, the Abbott government had moved ”to axe the Climate Commission, abolish our investments in renewable energy, abandon a price on carbon pollution and tear down our international commitments to action”.
Simon Bradshaw, Oxfam climate change advocacy coordinator, said non-government aid organisations met Mr Hunt in February to make the case for more climate aid, particularly to vulnerable Pacific areas. ”The discussions we’ve had with [the Coalition] suggest they may be more inclined to strengthen existing bilateral relationships” rather than back multilateral efforts, Dr Bradshaw said.
