Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I'll go back to my primary answer first. Climate change can only be addressed and dealt with by all countries of the world responding. You ask: what about China? Of course the new installed capacity of China, as well as in many other countries, is a concern. It is a concern. That is why we need an international agreement of which we are part. That is why Paris, Glasgow and the UN Conference of the Parties to drive action by all countries is needed. That's the first point.

The second point is, again, the economic imperative. We have done well as a country, and it has been a good thing that we have been able to utilise the fossil fuel resources that we have. But at some point we have to be able to make our way in the world, prosper in the world and export to the world clean energy and goods and services which are low carbon, because the world will pay high prices for them over the decades to come. So there is an economic imperative as well as a climate change imperative.