Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Deakin for his question and for his interest, because I know he has a serious interest in these issues and he shares the view that all members of the government share that obviously the issue of climate change is one of the issues the international community needs to address. This government believes that issues should be addressed not by left-wing ranting but in a sensible and practical way. One of the things that really amuse me about the political Left in this country is that they seem to think they have a solution to the issue of climate change. Their argument is that, if you sign the Kyoto protocol and ratify it, somehow that will solve the problem of climate change. If I may say so, this is a deceit. It is deceiving the Australian people to argue that if Australia signed the Kyoto protocol somehow that would solve the problem of climate change. It is quite wrong.

The government have not ratified Kyoto, not because we do not think the issue of climate change needs to be addressed, but for two reasons. First of all, Kyoto will not have any significant impact at all on the issue of climate change. It is estimated that if the 2010 targets are met by all those countries that have set targets—and I think it is highly unlikely that those targets will be reached—global emissions will be 40 per cent higher than they were in 1990. If there were no Kyoto protocol, those emissions would be 41 per cent higher than they were in 1990. You cannot argue that that is going to have a significant impact on climate change—or, to put that another way, if these targets are met, by the year 2100 global temperatures will be cut by just 3/100ths of a degree—

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