Australian Prime Minister John Howard announced yesterday that Australia, one of the worst per capita polluters in the world, will launch a domestic carbon trading scheme in 2012 to fight global warming.
But Howard warned that capping the carbon dioxide belched out by coal-fired power stations could seriously hurt the economy and Australia might have to turn in part to previously shunned nuclear energy.
"Implementing an emissions trading scheme and setting a long-term goal for reducing emissions will be the most momentous economic decision Australia will take in the next decade," he said.
"If we get this wrong it will do enormous damage to the economy, to jobs and to the economic well-being of ordinary Australians, especially low-income households," he said.
Howard, whose government joined the US in refusing to sign the Kyoto Protocol on limiting greenhouse gas emissions, said Australia's trading scheme would be better than those already in place in Europe.
"More comprehensive, more rigorously grounded in economics and with better governance than anything in Europe," he told an annual meeting of his Liberal Party national council.
But his refusal to set a target for the reduction in emissions until next year and the delay in implementation until 2012 drew immediate criticism.
"Climate change is not going to wait for the Liberal Party," Australian Greens leader Senator Bob Brown said.
"Keeping global temperature rises to two degrees Celsius or less requires rigorous action now," he said.
Howard attributed the delay in setting a target to a need for rigorous economic modelling, but critics noted that it also meant he would not have to announce the figure before general elections at the end of this year.
The opposition Labor Party, which has pledged a cut of 60 percent in emissions by 2050, has a strong lead in opinion polls.
Climate change has become a major political issue in Australia, where the worst drought in a century is hitting agriculture and the economy and threatening drinking water supplies to cities.
Howard said Australia, which holds 40 percent of the world's uranium reserves, would also have to set aside opposition to atomic energy and consider the introduction of nuclear power stations.
The plan would involve the government setting a cap on emissions and granting businesses permits to cover the amount of greenhouse gases they produce each year. Firms wishing to emit more carbon dioxide than their allocated quota would have to buy permits from companies with a surplus, thereby creating an economic incentive to reduce pollution.
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
RSS