Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

(a)

acknowledges proposals submitted by the Federated States of Micronesia and Mauritius to amend the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer to regulate and phase-down hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) with a high global warming potential, and promote the destruction of banks of ozone-depleting substances at the Montreal Protocol Open Ended Working Group meeting to be held in Geneva from 13 July to 18 July 2009;

(b)

notes that these proposals will strengthen the protocol to provide fast-action climate change mitigation several times greater than the emission reductions sought during the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC);

(c)

recognises the importance of these and other fast-action mitigation strategies to reduce the threat of crossing tipping points for abrupt, irreversible and catastrophic climate changes – tipping points many leading scientists now warn may be only a few years away; and

(d)

calls on the Government to support the proposals from the Federated States of Micronesia and Mauritius, and to recognise the need to work towards an HFC phase-out coordinated between the UNFCCC and the protocol, and to seek amendments that will enable the UNFCCC and the protocol to both play important collaborative roles in the phase-out of HFCs.

Question agreed to.

Kerry O'Brien (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—The government oppose this motion. We recognise that, with the opposition supporting the motion, the numbers will lie with Senator Milne’s motion. We will not call a division but we wanted that recorded.

Steve Fielding (Victoria, Family First Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—Family First opposes this motion.