Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Abetz, representing the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources. Is the minister aware that, under the EU arrangements, the United Kingdom agreed to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 12½ per cent from the level in 1990 and is projected to achieve an 18 per cent cut? Is the minister also aware that Germany has targeted a 21 per cent cut in greenhouse gas emissions from the level in 1990 and is projected to achieve a 19 per cent cut? How is it that these two countries can make such massive, absolute cuts to their emissions by 2010 while Australia struggles to reach its target of 108 per cent? Why is it that by 2010 these two countries will have made significant cuts to their greenhouse emissions while the Howard government has spent the last 10 years denying the threat of climate change and the need to take real measures to cut our emissions?