Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you to Senator Brown for the question. In relation to the first aspect of the question, Senator Brown asked me, I think on Thursday, about when the government would be announcing its mid-term targets. I indicated to him that we would be announcing those very soon, and we did so announce the following day. That was the government’s announcement. Just to be clear about what the government was announcing: the government was giving two weeks notice of its intention to make an announcement on 15 December, which will be an announcement of both the white paper and the medium-term target range. So we have put that out very clearly and given people two weeks notice of what will be a very substantial government announcement.

The second aspect of the question relates to a global parts-per-million goal. Senator Brown has asked me similar questions on previous occasions, and I think on previous occasions I have reiterated the fact that a parts-per-million atmospheric goal is essentially a goal that must be signed up to or delivered by all nations of the globe and that how these targets, these goals, are to be communicated and set is precisely one of the issues that will be the subject of negotiations in Poznan and over the period leading up to Copenhagen.

In relation to burden sharing, which is often an aspect of Senator Brown’s questions in this context, again I reiterate that any global goal also will require a negotiation in relation to burden sharing, as outlined in the Bali roadmap. (Time expired)