Both rich and poor nations must commit to slashing greenhouse gas emissions if the world wants to solve global warming, Australia’s trade minister said Saturday at a landmark climate change summit.
“We all know the environmental imperative of facing up to the challenge of climate change,” said Simon Crean, who was sworn in as Australia’s trade minister after Labor’s Kevin Rudd was voted in last month
Crean said that Australia was not going to sign up to any binding commitments on battling climate change until they had the results of a report commissioned by Rudd’s climate change conomic specialist, expected next year.
But he told reporters on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali said they would lay out their pledges “at the appropriate time”.
“Australia has said that we understand that if we’re to solve this problem we’re going to have to commit to targets,” he said.
The European Union, developing countries led by China, and environmental activists are urging the rich world to commit to reducing their polluting greenhouse gas emissions by 25 to 40 percent by 2020.
But the current US administration has stressed that it will not sign up to any mandatory targets that hamper economic growth, while Canada has said that booming developing economies like India and China must also commit to targets.
Crean said that promises to cut carbon dioxide emissions by rich countries alone would not solve global warming.