[Greens-Media] MEDIA RELEASE - SENATOR CHRISTINE MILNE - Tide turning on climate change - PM Howard will be forced to act

[Willis, Katrina (Sen C. Milne)]

MEDIA RELEASE

Friday, 22 September 2006

Tide turning on climate change - PM Howard will be forced to act

The global tide is turning on climate change, leaving Prime Minister
John Howard with no option but to set greenhouse gas emission targets
and establish an emission trading system to allow the marketplace to
determine how best to meet them, the Australian Greens said today.

"British businessman Richard Branson's announcement that he will commit
$US3 billion over the next decade towards renewable energy initiatives
is the latest significant development in the climate change debate,"
Senator Milne said.

"In the past few weeks, Al Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth, has
focused attention on the urgency of climate change and the catastrophic
consequences of failing to act. 

"Winter grain harvest forecasts were down significantly this week on the
back of a record dry winter, while scientists in Europe alerted the
world to the break up of previously perennial Artic sea ice between
Norway and the North Pole.

"The state of California announced it is suing car manufacturers over
their contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, while the Murdoch media
empire last week did a major back flip, finally acknowledging the
seriousness of climate change.

"With speculation growing that US President George Bush is about to make
a major policy U-turn, Prime Minister John Howard is left dragging the
anchor on the rising tide of global opinion that we need to act urgently
to address climate change.

"Prime Minister Howard will be left with no option but to act. As well
as an emission trading system, Australia desperately needs a bolder
Mandatory Renewable Energy Target and feed-in tariffs.

"As long as Australia refuses to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, we undermine
the principal international mechanism for tackling the most serious
threat to the planet.

"Ratifying Kyoto would provide access to carbon trading and technology
transfer opportunities. Remaining outside Kyoto poses much more of a
threat to the Australian economy in the long run and leaves Australia
vulnerable to an avalanche of global condemnation."

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