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

The overwhelming scientific opinion is that to avoid what you describe as catastrophic climate change we need all countries in the world to reduce emissions either across their economies or against business as usual. We need a global reduction in emissions in the years to come. That is what the overwhelming scientific opinion says. As you know, that does require both reductions from developed nations and a commitment to action by developing nations to reduce their emissions over time. As I have previously said, in this case it is not possible for developed countries alone to achieve the sorts of reductions in greenhouse gas emissions that the globe requires. It requires both developing and developed countries to work together, and that is why the government is working so hard through the Copenhagen process to achieve a comprehensive global agreement to tackle climate change.