Australia softens?
The strongly anti-Kyoto Australian government appears to be softening its opposition to climate change actions, such as emissions trading. The Prime Minister John Howard is a pro-business conservative, so it must be galling for him when big business, not the environmental left, tells him to do something about climate change.
“Mr Howard, under pressure politically and from business to do more on climate change, acknowledged the problem yesterday by pledging $170 million to fund measures on mapping and adapting to global warming.
Of this sum, $126 million would be used to establish a National Centre for Climate Change Adaption. The other $44 million would be given to the CSIRO to help monitor localised effects. The CSIRO had applied for the funding in this year’s federal budget submission.
Significantly, Mr Howard agreed with the states to introduce a mandatory national greenhouse gas emissions and energy reporting system that would provide a measure of emissions for the first time, enabling them to be traded and progress towards a reduction target to be monitored.”