Australia will ”go its own way” on climate change with its plans for a cap and trade system and not be influenced by a different approach being adopted by the United States, Julia Gillard says.
In an interview with the Herald before she leaves for the US tomorrow, the Prime Minister said that while she and President Barack Obama both shared similar concerns about global warming, each faced domestic political restraints.
Mr Obama has been blocked by Congress from pursuing an emissions trading scheme so is attempting to regulate to cap carbon emissions.
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Ms Gillard has proposed a hybrid scheme that will start as a de facto carbon tax before morphing into an emissions trading scheme.
While the two will discuss climate change policy when they meet at the White House early on Tuesday morning, Australian time, Ms Gillard said her policy would not change. ”Our decisions need to be our own decisions,” she said. ”What’s best for our own economy.”
Ms Gillard will spend three days in Washington. She will be the fourth Australian prime minister - after Sir Robert Menzies, Bob Hawke and John Howard - to address a joint sitting of Congress.
The invitation was extended because her visit coincides with the 60th anniversary of the ANZUS Treaty.
”It’s a great honour for our nation that I have been asked to do that,” she said.
In New York, Ms Gillard will advance the campaign for Australia to receive a seat as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in 2013 and 2014. She will lobby the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, and about 40 UN representatives from African nations.
Ms Gillard said recent actions by the UN Security Council on Libya underscored that it had an important role to play, and that Australia, as a middle-power diplomacy, had a valuable contribution to make.
The Coalition opposes the bid.
