Do you ever wake up and feel, to use that US expression, like it is ‘Ground Hog Day’? Well, today is one of those days with Malcolm Turnbull saying that Australia may consider signing ‘a modified Kyoto Protocol’.
The Australian Government is reportedly re-considering their support for the Kyoto Protocol. But nowhere do they say this means immediate support for Kyoto which they could ratify next week if Parliament sits – that is, if they are really serious about climate action.
This is the same government that:
1. Negotiated hard in Kyoto in 1997 and got everything they wanted in the agreement in terms of flexible mechanisms
2. Then returned home and bowed to pressure from the US, and the coal and aluminium sectors and announced they were pulling out. This was announced by John Howard on World Environment Day in 2002!
3. Then spent the next 5 years doing everything they could to undermine, weaken and overturn the Kyoto Protocol through ridiculous fluffy schemes such as AP6 and APEC’s Sydney Distraction from climate change.
If John Howard’s Government is serious about climate change, there are three things that any government serious about climate change must support:
– immediate ratification of Kyoto.
– mandating a 30% reduction in Australia’s greenhouse emissions by 2020.
– stopping any more coal mines and coal-fired power stations.
Without action like this, today’s posturing by Malcolm Turnbull is just that – posturing. And the planet and future generations will be left to pick up the pieces.
