AUSTRALIA GIVES US THAT SINKING FEELING!

Environment Minister Robert Hill has boasted that "Australia is doing a lot to meet Kyoto Commitments". But as New South Wales suffers some of the worst flooding ever seen, the Australian delegation in the Hague is fighting to have every last twig of Australian foliage credited as a 'carbon sink', avoiding any action to cut emissions from fossil fuels. Australia is one of just two countries in the world that negotiated an increase in their greenhouse gas emissions at the Kyoto talks in 1997. But rather than limit its carbon emissions growth to 8%, it had blown out to a 16.9% rise by 1998.

Australia is now demanding further concessions in four areas, flexibility mechanisms, "business as usual" sinks to sequester carbon; compliance and participation by developing countries. In plain language, Australia wants to exploit any potential 'loop-holes' in the climate treaty. Meanwhile, the Australian people are paying the price of their Government's reactionary behaviour. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said that Australia can expect to see:

Decreased river runoff and greater water stress
Five times more people flooded during storm surges each year by 2080 in the Pacific region
The death of the Great Barrier Reef by 2020 after just a one degree temperature rise
Possible agricultural shifts and financial loss from fires
Land loss from sea level rise.

This week's flooding in northern New South Wales could cost Australians 700 million dollars, according to the NSW Farmers Association.

Although Australia has supported the United States on most fronts in the climate negotiations, on the US plan to provide a back-door subsidy to its South-West farmers, they may never agree. The US plan could pay 3-5USD per acre of corn or soya in the United States, but would be unlikely to do so in Australia. The new back door subsidy would mean the US can meet 20 percent of its Kyoto commitments just by counting its farms and rangelands. Australia, with its different natural resource and agricultural land mix would be unable to count on a similar figure from its farms.

FOE Australia climate campaigner Ophelia Cowell commented: "We are bitterly angry at the obstructive behaviour of the Australian delegation at the Hague talks. Their toadying to the United States threatens to wreck any agreement here, or produce a deal that is not worth the paper it is written on. The people of New South Wales, and other Australians who will suffer the effects of man-made climate change in the future, will remember the names of the politicians who failed to take action when they had the chance."

Friends of the Earth contacts:

Now in The Hague at the COP6 Conference:
Ophelia Cowell (FOE Australia) 00 31 6 13 01295
Ian Willmore (FOEI) 00 44 7887 641 344