Jul 14 2010
Australia is seeing ‘Red’ over the global greenhouse gas emission policies. The debate on the role of Australia in global warming would prove to be a classical case study. The stark reality is that Australia is doing very little about the commitments it made at the summit in Copenhagen, indicates the World Resources Institute. It is often quoted that this Australasian country-continent contributes to about 1.4% in terms of worldwide greenhouse gases.
What is not often quoted though is that Australia is the 15th largest emitter in the world and accounts for only about 0.3% of the overall world population, thus amounting to about four times that of the global average. It is true that among the countries in the world, the two biggest contributors, United States and China, need to take effective action for any kind of global change. But that provides only cold comfort for Australia’s inactions.
If Australia, in its 15th position can give excuses for delay in its action on climate change policies, then around 185 nations will have all the more reasons for inaction. John Howard and Kevin Rudd signed the 2007 Kyoto agreement with great fanfare, but since then, there remain doubts on whether Australia will go on to achieve its 2012 targets. Moreover, the country cast a shadow over its 1997 Kyoto agreement when it befriended the U.S. government for business gains and, in the process, lost out on many other friends. Call it innocence or irrelevance, when it comes to matters of greenhouse gases and political hypocrisy, Australia’s efforts leave a lot to be desired, unless there is more to the entire scenario than meets the eye.
Source: http://www.wri.org/