Australia joins global effort at Doha climate change talks

Mark Dreyfus, the Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, is leading the Australian delegation at the 18th meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP18) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, taking place in Doha, Qatar, until Friday.

“Australia is taking part at Doha having implemented the Clean Energy Future plan, successfully linked its emission trading scheme with Europe and poised to join a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol,” said Dreyfus.

“The commitment to sign Kyoto 2 is contingent upon countries around the world taking action on climate change and continued progress on a new agreement,” said the Minister for Climate Change, Greg Combet.

At the Durban COP last year, all countries agreed to negotiate a new global agreement by 2015, to apply from 2020.

“In Doha, countries are starting work on the new agreement which will cover all major economies, including the United States, China, the European Union, India, Russia, Japan and South Korea,” said Dreyfus.

“Negotiations will progress steadily over the next four years. This will consolidate international commitments from 90 countries, which produce 80% of global carbon pollution, to cut emissions by 2020. The vast range of domestic action to price carbon pollution by individual countries will continue to grow,” he said.

“From next year, more than 50 national or subnational regions will have emissions trading schemes or a carbon price, covering a combined population of around 1.1 billion people. Contrary to false claims made by the Leader of the Opposition, Australia is not acting alone,” said Combet.

During the climate talks, Dreyfus will meet with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, chair the Umbrella Group and make a special presentation on Australia’s pioneering savanna burning methodology, recently certified under the Carbon Farming Initiative.

“This is a massive, collective effort to slow down climate change and Australia will keep working as constructively as possible over the next months and years, at home and abroad, to responsibly manage the challenge that confronts us,” said Dreyfus.