No agreement from Cancun
letter published in The Herald Sun, 14 December 2010
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon says the Cancun Agreements include “formalizing mitigation pledges” to reduce emissions, and UN climate change chief Figueres sees them as a “clear signal that governments are headed towards a low-emissions future” (Press Statement, 11 December).
How does Climate Change Minister Combet draw from this that “it is now up to Australia to introduce a carbon price as soon as possible”?
No mechanism has been established for achieving pledges countries have made and no agreement as to how those pledges might be met.
While UK Prime Minister Cameron says “there is more hard work to be done ahead of the climate change conference in South Africa next year”, it is difficult to see what might lead to the missing binding agreement on emissions reductions.
The Cancun “agreements do make one thing clear: Australia should on no account take further measures to reduce emissions in the absence of comparable action by countries which are major emitters.
Des Moore
Institute for Private Enterprise
South Yarra.