[Greens-Media] Rudd ignores forest 'elephant'

[Bennett, Ebony (Sen B. Brown)]

Tuesday, 16 December 2008

Rudd ignores forest 'elephant'

The Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has ignored the 20% or so of Australia's
greenhouse emissions coming from logging and clearance of forests and
woodlands as a huge low-cost opportunity to address climate change,
Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown said today.

"Logging, from the Tiwi Islands to Tasmania, is not needed for domestic
wood needs as Australia has more than 1.5 million hectares of
to-be-logged plantations for its paper and structural timber market,"
Senator Brown said.

"The $20 billion the Rudd government has allocated for a 4% reduction in
2020 greenhouse gas emissions over 1990 levels could have far greater
benefit in terms of reducing greenhouse has emissions if put to
restructuring the logging industry, and ending land clearance, rather
than featherbedding the coal and allied industries.

"This morning, the forest defenders group 'Still Wild Still Threatened'
closed the operations of Gunns' export woodchip mill at Triabunna in
Tasmania.

"Logging and burning of forests is Tasmania's biggest greenhouse gas
emitter - bigger than all the states' transport systems put together. 

"Worse still, it is largely going to Japan for wrapping paper which ends
up on rotting rubbish tips as greenhouse gases," Senator Brown said.

"Logging is an elephant in the Prime Minister's room," Senator Brown
said.

Further information: Ebony Bennett 0409 164 603


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Ebony Bennett
Media Advisor 
Senator Bob Brown | Leader of the Australian Greens 
e: ebony.bennett at aph.gov.au 
m: 0409 164 603 | p: (02) 6277 3170 | f: (02) 6277 3185
w: www.bobbrown.org.au <http://www.bobbrown.org.au/>