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Australia Unveils Plan to Cut Emissions
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by Karenke4 | December 15, 2008 at 10:12 am
84 views | 5 Recommendations | 1 comment
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Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced on Monday Australia's commitment to cutting carbon emissions by a minimum of 5 percent by 2020 based on levels measured in 2000. Compared to other nations including the EU whose goal is to cut emissions by 20 %, these measures fall quite short, according to environmental activists.
The new measures announced by Mr Rudd will see:
• Greenhouse gas emissions cut by between between 5% and 15% by 2020, from 2000 levels
• A scheme to be implemented by 2010 requiring industrial polluters to bid for government licenses to emit carbon. It will cover 75% of emissions and include 1,000 of the country's biggest firms, but will initially exclude Australia's drought-battered farmers
According to many citizens, Prime Minister Rudd has not followed through on his election promises to tackle the problem of global warming. Australia has the disadvantage of being one of the largest producers of greenhouse gasses as well as the country likely to be affected most by climate change.
Rudd has been attacked for putting the economy before environmental issues while in term.
"You could say that the decision came down to a choice between the environment and the economy," Gary Cox, head of environmental derivatives at global brokers Newedge, told Reuters news agency.
"And at this stage it looks like the economy has won."
Many activists had hoped that Rudd's plan would call for a 25% reduction by 2020 and are outraged by the new plan, which will still protect large scale polluters in the short term.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the interim plan would not affect his commitment to slash the carbon emissions that are blamed for global warming by 60 percent from 2000 levels by 2050.
Though his plan for how to reduce emissions by an additional 55 % over 30 years has not yet been revealed.
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erlandh
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Hillsboro, Oregon, United States
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Sydney, New South Wales, AustraliaLeo in Canberra
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (1)
at 23:57 on December 16th, 2008
I don't agree that they have put the economy first!
They have put vested interests first!
I had the same feeling of euphoria many Americans must have experienced when Rudd won office over a year ago. Very sadly, he now looks worn out and downtrodden, like many politicians do when they've been in office for even a short a while.
It is almost impossible for Party politicians to introduce new governance. The Party line is law! Cross the floor, and you are out.
Right now, the AU Tax office has opened debate on advancing tax policy in AU. We can relieve the pressure by cutting taxes to individuals and businesses, and opening up trade, if we simply collected the Resource Rent, according to Geonomics theory, thus saving the economy from future downturns. See the Geonomics Channel under "environment" for related stories.