Australian PM responds to Stern
The Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, has reacted strongly to recent criticisms made of his Government’s climate change policies (or rather, lack of policies) by Sir Nicholas Stern. It is a sign of the public pressure for action that Mr Howard felt he had to respond, even though his arguments are not very compelling.
Mr Howard does seem, however, to have been shamed into appearing to do something for the environment:
“But in an effort to regain the initiative on environmental policy, John Howard will outline his plan today to reduce the legal and illegal logging of old-growth forests throughout the world.
In a concept similar to the AP6 group of nations Australia established in 2005 as a rival to the Kyoto Protocol, he will announce plans to form a group of like-minded nations, as well as the World Bank and multinational companies, to discourage nations from logging their forests.
Australia will contribute $200 million to what will be a global fund to be used for education and the establishment of regional forest management schemes across countries with dwindling old-growth forests.”