AUSTRALIA has called on China and India to do more to combat climate change as it prepares to challenge the notion that developing countries should have less onerous obligations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
During a meeting on the sidelines of the UN Climate Change Conference in the Peruvian capital, Lima, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop yesterday urged the vice-chair of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, Xie Zhenhua, to do more to tackle emissions reductions.
Ms Bishop plans to tell the conference today that the binary definition of developed and developing countries “is misleading and doesn’t lead to best outcomes’’ in combating climate change “because the divide is arbitrary”.
“It doesn’t matter where the emissions come from, they are global emissions,’’ she will say.
After her meeting with Mr Xie, Ms Bishop told The Australian: “I said I thought there would be more China could do to reduce its emissions and that it was not appropriate for China to be claiming to be a developing country.”
Under existing global climate change agreements, developed countries are subject to emissions reduction commitments while developing countries are subject to less stringent conditions.
The obligations of developed countries compared with developing countries have been a past source of disagreement at climate talks, with developing countries arguing their industrial progress should not be curtailed because of problems caused by historical emissions from industrialised countries. Australia will today tell the Lima conference that it is on track to meet its target of cutting carbon emissions by 5 per cent of 2000 levels by 2020 through its Direct Action abatement plan. And Ms Bishop will reveal that Australia will release its emissions reduction targets beyond 2020 in the first half of next year.
Speaking from Lima, Ms Bishop said Mr Xie had told her China intended to reach a peak in its emissions by 2030 — in line with the pact it signed with the US last month — and that the nation was looking at its energy mix.
“He said they were intending to put in place a direct action plan,’’ she said.
Ms Bishop said China had the advantage of being able to leapfrog energy technologies, moving straight to modern technologies such as renewable energy or clean coal rather than having to start with coal-fired steam turbines.
“I believe the notion of saying that China is a developing country has had its day in relation to climate change,’’ she said.
A similar argument applied to India. As India’s economy grew, it would dwarf the size of other economies.
“As its emissions increase, it has a responsibility to seek to curb them,’’ the Foreign Minister said.
This week’s climate change conference in Lima is a precursor to next year’s crucial conference in Paris, which the UN hopes will achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate and emissions reduction.
China and the US last month sought to provide some momentum to the talks by clinching a climate change deal under which China agreed to peak its emissions by 2030 and use 20 per cent renewable energy.
However, Ms Bishop has criticised the commitment as business as usual rather than a reduction target.
Ms Bishop was speaking after Tony Abbott yesterday announced Australia would contribute $200 million to the UN’s Green Climate Fund. The Prime Minister has drawn criticism after he resisted making an announcement on the fund at last month’s G20 summit in Brisbane, where US President Barack Obama thrust it to centre stage by committing $US3 billion ($3.6bn).
In opposition, Mr Abbott criticised UN climate funds as “socialism masquerading as environmentalism’’ and a “Bob Brown bank on an international scale’’.
Yesterday he said: “I’ve made various comments some time ago, but as we have seen things develop over the last few months, I think it’s now fair and reasonable for the government to make a modest, prudent and proportionate commitment to this climate mitigation fund.
“I think that is something that a sensible government does. As I have always said, we have been doing a lot to combat climate change.
“We are one of the very few countries that has actually met our Kyoto targets. We are one of the very few countries that will deliver on our 2020 commitments and our 2020 commitments are a 12 per cent reduction on 2005 emissions level.’’
Bill Shorten accused Mr Abbott of a “humiliating retreat”.
“Tony Abbott’s simply changing his tactics because he’s worried about keeping his job,” the Opposition Leader said.
He said Mr Abbott and his ministers had been embarrassed in Peru “so they’ve belatedly done something which they said they’d never do”.
Ms Bishop said the fund would be directed to Indian Ocean and Asia-Pacific countries and would fit with the underlying principles of Australia’s aid budget.
“The focus will be on investing in productivity-enhancing infrastructure and energy, forestry and emissions reductions,” she said.
Despite recent reports that Ms Bishop had been angered by the decision to send Trade Minister Andrew Robb to Lima as her “chaperone” and that the Prime Minister’s office had initially ruled against sending a minister to Lima, Ms Bishop dismissed suggestions of disunity in the government. She said there was “enormous camaraderie’’ in the cabinet and denied tensions with Mr Abbott’s chief of staff, Peta Credlin.
“We work very closely together,’’ she said.
The Climate Institute welcomed the $200m government contribution to the Green Climate Fund as “a first step towards fair and proper financial support for poor and vulnerable countries responding to climate change’’.
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