Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to finish my remarks. The honourable member has to grapple with some inconvenient truths of his own regarding climate change. Firstly, Australia is on track to meet its Kyoto target. Most developed countries are not. That is an undoubted fact. Secondly, we recognise the massive technological challenge that I spoke about earlier in terms of having most of our energy coming from zero emission and near zero emission sources by mid century. A key part of that has to be clean coal. That is recognised. Australia is playing a leading role and punching well above its weight in terms of clean coal technology development. The only other countries that are at the same cutting edge level as Australia are the Netherlands and the United States—because of its scale, it is obviously investing more than anyone else. Then we have forestry, which is another key issue. The member for Kingsford Smith derided the global forest initiative as a modest measure. This is the second largest source of emissions, but because it was not his idea he poured scorn on it. That is the vanity of the Labor Party’s approach to climate change. Finally, there is energy efficiency, which is a hugely complex area. There are great opportunities there. Which was the first country to announce the phase out of inefficient lighting? Australia. On those objective measures, Australia is playing a leading role in the battle against climate change.

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