[Greens-Media] Sir Nicholas Stern says climate change is gathering speed - no time to waste on unproven solutions

[O'Connor, Cassy (Sen C. Milne)]

Sir Nicholas Stern says climate change is gathering speed - no time to
waste on unproven solutions

Hobart 17 April 2008   Australian Greens climate change spokesperson,
Senator Christine Milne, said climate expert Sir Nicholas Stern
overnight confirmed what the Greens and leading scientists have been
saying for some time; that climate change is accelerating and the planet
is running out of time.

"Sir Nicholas told the Reuters news agency in London that, 'Emissions
are growing much faster than we thought, the absorptive capacity of the
planet is less that we thought, the risks of greenhouse gases are
potentially bigger than more cautious estimates, and the speed of
climate change seems to be faster.'

"Alarm bells ought to be going off from the Whitehouse to Beijing and
here, at Parliament House in Canberra.

"We need deep cuts now.

"The Rudd Government needs to abandon its outdated pre-election pledge
to reduce Australia's emissions by 60% by 2050, and take action to make
deeper cuts.

"We must not delay action on the promise of the coal industry that it
can capture carbon and sequester it.

"As the respected McKinsey and Company recently demonstrated, we have
solutions available now.  We need to immediately end the logging and
burning of native forests in Tasmania, NSW and Victoria.  We must
systematically implement the roll out of renewables and energy
efficiency through this year's Budget.  

"With a strong government commitment to investing in, and growing the
capacity of, these solutions, Australia can begin to seriously reduce
its extremely high per capita emissions.

"This should be the key agenda item at the Prime Minister's 2020 Summit
this weekend.  Unless our country, and all in the developed and
developing world, rein in greenhouse emissions fast, we will all suffer
the effects of runaway climate change,"  Senator Milne said.


Media contacts:   	Cassy O'Connor   03 6224 8899 or 0400 628 939   

References: 
 G. Wynn, 'Climate expert Stern says underestimated problem', Reuters,
16 April 2008 
 McKinsey and Company, 'An Australian Cost Curve for Greenhouse Gas
Reduction', February 2008, 
http://www.mckinsey.com/clientservice/ccsi/pdf/Australian_Cost_Curve_for
_GHG_Reduction.pdf