WWF today welcomed Mr Abbott’s decision to begin addressing climate change, but said the Coalition proposal represented a risk both the planet and economy can no longer bear.<\/p>\n
"The Coalition’s proposal does not go far enough, and is extremely risky – with no hope of transforming Australia into a competitive, low carbon economy"\u00e2\u0080\u009d said WWF-Australia CEO Greg Bourne.<\/p>\n
"It would allow big business to keep increasing their pollution for as long as they like. ‘Business as usual’ means there is no need for the dirtiest of industries to do anything at all.<\/p>\n
"Australia is already feeling the harsh effects of climate change. The Bureau of Meteorology declared last decade the hottest on record, bushfire seasons have become longer and more dangerous, and sea levels have risen more than 5 centimeters over the past 15 years.<\/p>\n
"The overwhelming scientific evidence is clear that climate change is happening, is human induced and will have devastating effects on species, ecosystems, human health and our economy. We can’t keep delaying real action."<\/p>\n
WWF agrees that rapid deployment of clean energy, energy efficiency and biosequestration is essential, but at the centre of any climate policy must be a law to reduce carbon pollution. The Howard and Rudd governments, and most eminent economists, believe that an emissions trading scheme is the least cost way to achieve this.<\/p>\n
"The Government’s ETS is currently too generous to polluters, but it is ready to
\nbe implemented now, it is largely self-funding and it provides a price signal
\nthat can transform the whole economy and over the long-term," said Mr Bourne.<\/p>\n
WWF is deeply concerned that a policy proposal allowing business to continue polluting at current levels will not be able to guarantee the urgent reductions Australia needs to begin making in order to tackle climate change.<\/p>\n
"The Coalition may talk about a ‘Great Big New Tax on Everything’, but their alternative is a \u00e2\u0080\u0098Great Big New Way to Avoid Action’. If they were serious about tackling climate change they would support the Government’s ETS and pursue additional measures to support emerging clean technology, biosequestration and energy efficiency.<\/p>\n
"WWF urges politicians to put aside party politics and point scoring, and the vested interests of polluters and climate deniers, and act for the future of our environment and our economy."<\/p>\n
Jonathon Larkin, WWF Media Officer, 0410 221 410,
\njlarkin@wwf.org.au<\/p>\n
Kellie Caught, WWF Climate Change Policy Manager,
\nkcaught@wwf.org.au, 0406 383 277.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WWF today welcomed Mr Abbott’s decision to begin addressing climate change, but said the Coalition proposal represented a risk both the planet and economy can no longer bear. "The Coalition’s proposal does not go far enough, and is extremely risky – with no hope of transforming Australia into a competitive, low carbon economy"\u00e2\u0080\u009d said WWF-Australia […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4259,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-264019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4259"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264019\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}