[Greens-Media] MEDIA RELEASE - SENATOR CHRISTINE MILNE - Dumping carbon dioxide in deep ocean wrong response to climate change

[Willis, Katrina (Sen C. Milne)]

MEDIA RELEASE
		
Thursday, 14 September, 2006

Dumping carbon dioxide in deep ocean wrong response to climate change 

The Australian Greens today called on the Howard government not to
proceed with its attempt to undermine an international treaty protecting
the world's oceans so that carbon dioxide can be dumped at sea.

The government has given notice that it will try to amend an
international treaty at a meeting in November to permit geosequestration
in the seabed. 

Greens climate change spokesperson Senator Christine Milne said the
government's actions would further undermine international environmental
laws and risked serious pollution of the world's oceans which are
already growing more acidic because of climate change.

"It's bad enough that the Australian government is undermining
international efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by refusing to
ratify the Kyoto Protocol but now it wants to undermine the protocol* to
protect the world's oceans from pollution,"  Senator Milne said in
Canberra.

"A report in Science magazine in July about an experiment in the US
stated that carbon dioxide injected into saline sedimentary aquifers
caused carbonates and other minerals to dissolve rapidly, which could
cause CO2 and brine to leak into the water table.

"The world's oceans are already becoming more acidic because of climate
change. Pumping carbon dioxide into them with the risk of leakage from
storage cavities will only exacerbate this problem, threatening many
species and coral reefs.

"Is there no lengths to which the government will not go to advance the
interests of the coal industry?

"Geosequestration is expensive and a long way from being proven to work.
Why won't the government focus its funding and efforts instead on
solutions to climate change that are available right now - energy
efficiency, renewable energy, and better public transport?"

* Australia is a signatory to the 1996 Protocol to the London Convention
on the Prevention of Marine Pollution from Dumping of Wastes and Other
Matter (London Convention 1972). The protocol replaced the London
Convention in March this year.
			
Contact: Katrina Willis 03 6234 4566 or 0437 587 562`

Katrina Willis
Adviser
Senator Christine Milne
Phone 03 6234 4566
Fax 03 6234 2144
Mobile 0437 587 562
www.christinemilne.org.au