Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—Today marks an important step forward in building a modern Australia, ready to face the challenges of the future.

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges that Australia faces in the future; it is one of the greatest challenges that the world faces in the future.

It is an immense economic challenge.

It is an immense environmental challenge.

It is an immense moral challenge as well, with its greatest impacts falling on those who can least afford it.

No individual nation can solve the immense challenge of climate change alone. It requires the hard work of international engagement and cooperation.

From today, Australia officially becomes part of the global solution on climate change—and not just part of the global problem—because from today Australia’s ratification of Kyoto enters into force.

After being sworn in as Prime Minister on December 3 last year, I signed Australia’s instrument of ratification as the first act of the new government.

I handed that instrument of ratification to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon on December 12 in Bali.

Under Kyoto rules there is a mandatory 90-day waiting period before it comes into force.

Those 90 days have passed. Australia’s ratification of the Kyoto protocol has now come into force today.

Australia is now sending a clear signal to the world that we are taking responsibility when it comes to our global responsibilities and our national responsibilities on climate change.

Ratifying Kyoto has put Australia back on the map.

We have a full seat at the table. For the first time we are a full negotiating partner in all key international forums.

One of the government’s obligations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is to submit a report that demonstrates how Australia is able to measure the reductions in emissions that are required under Kyoto.

The deadline for this report is twelve months from the date that ratification comes into effect—that is, 11 March 2009.

The government is pleased to announce that we are submitting Australia’s Initial Report under the Kyoto Protocol today, 11 March 2008, one year ahead of its deadline.

I am tabling this report in the House today.

The initial report outlines the measures we are using to calculate our emissions levels.

And it also outlines the critical role of the National Carbon Accounting System in measuring emissions from land use, land use change and forestry.

We have taken this a step further by announcing agreements to share this technology and system regionally and globally—all part of taking responsibility to help shape a global solution.

Last week I visited our regional neighbours Papua New Guinea and discussed the challenge of climate change with Prime Minister Michael Somare.

As part of the government’s new Pacific Partnerships for Development, we will embark upon a PNG-Australia Forest Carbon Partnership.

This will involve assisting PNG in developing their carbon monitoring and accounting capacity to underpin participation in global carbon markets.

Australia’s National Carbon Accounting System will be an important element of the Forest Carbon Partnership.

The government has also announced a partnership with a range of international organisations (including the Clinton Foundation) to take the National Carbon Accounting System global.

This reflects the kind of technical leadership that Australia can provide in tackling climate change on a global level.

I am also tabling a second report today, the Tracking to the Kyoto Target 2007 report.

As the Tracking to the Kyoto Target 2007 report shows, the latest projections of these emission levels indicate Australia is now on track to meet its Kyoto emissions target.

This report reflects the fact that the policy commitments of this Government will begin to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions immediately.

By increasing the use of renewable energy, we will trigger much greater emissions reductions in the longer term than had been forecast in 2006 under the previous government.

This report shows Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions, under this government’s policy settings, are now projected to be 108 per cent of 1990 levels over 2008-12

This is equal to Australia’s Kyoto target.

Under the previous government’s policy settings, the projections showed that Australia would be around six million tonnes off our target. This is equivalent to the annual emissions of around 1.2 million cars.

We recognise that ratifying Kyoto was just the first step and much more needs to be done.

The Australian government has a comprehensive plan for responding to climate change based on three pillars: reducing Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions, adapting to climate change that we cannot avoid and helping to shape a global solution.

We will implement a system of emissions trading which will place a limit, or a cap, on the emissions we will allow to be produced. Emissions trading will make us responsible for the greenhouse gases we put into the atmosphere.

We have also announced that 20 per cent of Australia’s electricity supply will be sourced from renewables by 2020.

The COAG Working Group on Climate Change and Water is working to bring together state and federal renewable energy targets.

A nationally consistent renewable energy target would stimulate much needed investment in clean energy to reduce greenhouse emissions.

We are committed to working towards a post-2012 agreement for addressing climate change and reaching an agreement on a long-term global goal for emissions reduction.

To support our efforts in the UN negotiations, the government is also working through the US-led Major Economies Meetings process and the climate change forums under the G8 and engaging in strategic bilateral dialogue with key countries.

Confronting the challenge of climate change is the challenge of our generation. It is an immense challenge. But with decisive action we can turn challenge into opportunity. We have made a start, but there is a long way to go. We can be a leader in our response to the threat of climate change; and, by getting on the front foot, we can build a modern economy that seizes the opportunity of new, low-carbon energy industries and technologies. Ratifying Kyoto was just the first step. This Government is committed to taking responsibility by tackling climate change. Being part of the global solution to climate change is an important step forward in building a modern Australia. Australia is capable of dealing with the challenges of the 21st century. I present a copy of the report: Tracking to the Kyoto target—Australia’s greenhouse emission trends, 1990 to 2008-2012 and 2020—Department of Climate Change.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent Dr Nelson (Leader of the Opposition) speaking for a period not exceeding 6 minutes.

Question agreed to.

Brendan Nelson (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the alternative government, the opposition, I welcome Australia’s formal ratification of the Kyoto protocol which comes into force today. Climate change is real, it is important and it is fundamental. In that context, climate change presents us with two great challenges. Both are major but achievable challenges. The first is to allow the poor of the world to develop and achieve the benefits of a modern economy and to encourage the continued improvement of health, freedom and prosperity in the already developed societies. The second is to progressively shift from a high emissions economy to a low emissions economy. Managing climate change will be one of the great challenges of our time—indeed, it already is. It represents an important economic shift and will require a portfolio of responses. In Australia’s case, we are moving towards progressive pricing and the cost of carbon in the way our economy operates, and this will be essential to any agreement beyond 2012. This is big history in the making, as the member for Flinders has observed, perhaps the most significant economic decision in a generation. With such a profound change, we need to make sure that we get our policy responses right. For businesses and households, the impact of climate change will be far reaching and will present both major challenges and opportunities.

By ratifying the Kyoto protocol, Australia has committed to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 108 per cent of 1990 levels by 2012. We are on track to meet this target thanks to the practical coalition government programs to fight climate change introduced over the last 12 years. These include the $500 million Low Emissions Technology Demonstration Fund, which leveraged over $3 billion in private sector investment for significant projects, including the world’s largest carbon capture and storage project; investment of more than $1 billion to promote renewable energy, including nearly $18 million under the Advanced Electricity Storage Technologies program to look at more efficient ways of storing electricity from renewable power sources; and an $8,000 rebate for Australians to install renewable solar energy in their homes—a very important and practical measure. On energy efficiency, the previous government led the world in announcing the phase-out of inefficient incandescent light bulbs that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated four million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year by 2015.

The ratification of the Kyoto protocol is important, but it will be meaningless if we do not also redouble our efforts to create a truly inclusive international agreement on climate change, one that commits all countries—developing and developed—to cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Australia’s annual emissions are around 560 million tonnes of carbon dioxide or around some 1½ per cent of the total global emissions, which are around 40 billion tonnes every year. It is forecast that, on current trends, Australia’s emissions will be one per cent of global emissions by 2050. The developing world at the moment is 50 per cent of global emissions, forecast on current trends to be 75 per cent by 2050. To put this into perspective: by 2050, China’s and India’s emissions, without any change, at one-third of total global emissions, will exceed those of the United States, Europe, Russia, Japan, Brazil, Canada and Australia combined. We in Australia have an important role in reducing our greenhouse gas emissions and preparing for the challenge of climate change, but any real solution to climate change must be global and it must take in the world’s biggest emitters, including the United States, China and India. Carbon does not respect borders.

I urge the government to take seriously the damaging impact of deforestation on global greenhouse gas emissions. Deforestation in developing countries accounts for around 20 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. The Global Initiative on Forests and Climate, launched by the coalition government last year, was designed to immediately and practically reduce global deforestation and promote reforestation in developing countries in our region. I call on the government to commit to continuing this important program and provide practical steps to protect the world’s great forests.

A carbon trading scheme, as I said, is an essential part of our post-Kyoto framework. The government has also expressed concern about effectively addressing climate change but, ironically, has refused to sell uranium to India needed for the development of its domestic power industry—one of the largest and growing emitters of carbon throughout the world. Australia alone cannot save the world from climate change, but if we make the wrong decisions we will cause irreparable damage to our children’s economic and environmental legacy and we have a responsibility to the next generation to know precisely what it is that we are signing them up for before we move further beyond Kyoto and the agreements beyond 2012.