Friday 28 November 2014

The AIM Network - The Australian Independent Media Network

The AIM Network - The Australian Independent Media Network




Australia: nature needs you














What is fundamentally at stake in Australia right now is life – all of it!


From Australia’s last great wilderness in the Kimberley (Western
Australia), to the Pilliga woodland of New South Wales, and the towering
rainforests of Tasmania and Victoria, we are all connected to this
country in one-way or another.



Yet, our governments and their industrial sidekick corporations
continue to put at risk the community’s land, food, air, water, wildlife
and significant cultural and heritage values in order extract fossil
fuels from the ground for emerging super power countries and sustain, in
the short-term, Australia’s “economic viability”.



To deny life support to your own people in need is clearly an act of
violence. All political power rests on this violent foundation – from
the first dominion of kings and emperors to the elaborate systems of
state land management today.



In effect, it’s an invisible violence of security – a hostility that
many Australians are facing, imprisoned by an all-powerful,
imperial-like external force. Some may like to term this type of
violence a form of “terrorism” but therein lies “terrorism’s” ambiguity.



Stand-by Australia to be bombarded with fossil fuel campaigns over
the next 18 months, telling you how safe and clean these resources are
to human life.



The ‘clean’ fossil fuels campaign will undoubtedly be another sorcery
of social relations, that which big industry, governments and their
corporate media partners will spin (spending millions of dollars in the
process to back the fraudulent financial Ferris wheel), until the public
are convinced of its moral and economic rationality – thus creating
another modern-day myth for society to accept.



The truthful facts of how the industrial state complex is crippling
Australia (economically and sustainably) must be exposed to the wider
public.



The Australian nation must bond together and work up a mass system of
deterrence against this “polluted democracy” to not only save
themselves and their families but the environment that sustains us all.



Environmental destruction endorsed by governments and carried out by
big business and fossil fuel banking cartels is a challenge to
Australian society, and it must be responded to as such. If we don’t do
something right now, we will all be tied to a human catastrophe that can
never be reversed.



It’s the people alone who can lead us to a cleaner, better future.
People such as Albert Wiggan, Anne Kennedy, Bob Davey, Hedley Hoskinson
and Madeleine Deveson are standing their ground to protect nature and
attempting to reach out to the rest of Australia to wake us up from of
the propagated fossil fuel slumber.



These ordinary Australians are speaking out in a new short film
produced by Balangara Films and The Wilderness Society Inc to help
inspire all of us to act from the heart consciousness.



Watch the short film (an absolutely stunning and inspiring video):



Solutions

The risky search of fossil fuels and destruction of our
forests is a costly distraction from investing in a clean energy future.
These are just a few alternate solutions to a better, cleaner
sustainable future:



Denmark Gets One-Third of its Electricity from Wind (Earth Policy):
http://www.earth-policy.org/data_highlights/2014/highlights46


The Next 1 million (AUS) Solar Rooftops (Eco Generation):
http://ecogeneration.com.au/news/the_next_one_million_solar_rooftops/082506/


History of New Energy Invention Suppression Cases (Rense):
http://www.rense.com/general72/oinvent.htm


Global Breakthrough Energy Movement (GlobalBEM):
http://globalbem.com


What can YOU DO? Find out more:

http://www.wilderness.org.au/articles/stand-your-ground-–%C2%A0nature-needs-you



About the author: Mark Pearce is a director and producer at Balangara Films, Melbourne, Australia.


Meet some of the team:


Albert Wiggan from the Kimberley, standing his ground to protect significant Indigenous culture, country and heritage sites which is all under threat from oil and gas extraction.
Albert
Wiggan from the Kimberley, standing his ground to protect significant
Indigenous culture, country and heritage sites which is all under threat
from oil and gas extraction.

























Anne Kennedy
Anne
Kennedy — President of the Great Artesian Basin Protection Group,
standing her ground to protect the Pilliga groundwater recharge area of
the Great Artesian Basin from the coal seam gas industry.

























    (Left) Hedley Hoskinson — Commercial Bee Keeper (retired) and (Right) Bob Davey — President Beekeepers Lobby Group, protecting the leatherwood resource; the understory of the old growth Tasmanian rainforests that beekeepers rely on in order to help produce the majority of Tasmania’s local food supply.
(Left)
Hedley Hoskinson — Commercial Bee Keeper (retired) and (Right) Bob
Davey — President Beekeepers Lobby Group, protecting the leatherwood
resource; the understory of the old growth Tasmanian rainforests that
beekeepers rely on in order to help produce the majority of Tasmania’s
local food supply.






















Madeleine Deveson — Volunteer, helping promote a newly proposed Great Forest National Park and protecting Victoria’s mountain ash forests that continue to be logged and wood chipped for wastepaper.
Madeleine
Deveson — Volunteer, helping promote a newly proposed Great Forest
National Park and protecting Victoria’s mountain ash forests that
continue to be logged and wood chipped for wastepaper.
























Sunday 23 November 2014

Government research paper scuppers Julie Bishop's Reef attack on Obama

Government research paper scuppers Julie Bishop's Reef attack on Obama



27





An Australian Government publication shows that senior Abbott
Government Ministers Julie Bishop and Andrew Robb are totally wrong in
criticising U.S. President Barack Obama for his Great Barrier Reef
warning.




The Australian Government research paper found that 'reducing the amount of climate change is the single most effective way of minimising negative impacts' on the Great Barrier Reef.



The paper, published in 2007, says:



'Even under the most optimistic climate change scenarios, the GBR
is destined for significant change over this century; under pessimistic
scenarios, catastrophic impacts are possible.'





And:



'This vulnerability assessment confirms that increasing sea
temperature is the single biggest risk factor for the GBR over the short
to mid-term (years to decades) .... 
Sea temperature increases
are the major cause of the predicted decline in coral communities over
the current century, with flow-on effects through the entire ecosystem.'







But Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, along with Trade Minister Andrew Robb criticised President Obama for his speech at Queensland University before the G20 meeting when he said:



"Nobody has more at stake when it comes to thinking about and
acting on climate change…the incredible natural glory of the Great
Barrier Reef is threatened."





Ms Bishop was quoted by Fairfax media as saying of the reef:



"It's not under threat from climate change because its biggest
threat is nutrient runoffs from agricultural land [and] the second
biggest threat is natural disasters, but this has been for 200 years."







She was quoted in The Guardian as saying:



'Of course the Great Barrier Reef will be preserved for generations to come. We don’t believe it is in danger.' 




On Sky News Mr Robb said of the Obama speech:



“'It was misinformed, but it was also unnecessary."






Ms Bishop and Mr Robb should read the Government’s own report titled:



'Climate Change and the Great Barrier Reef: A Vulnerability
Assessment, edited by Johanna E Johnson and Paul A
Marshall .... Published by: Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority,
Townsville, Australia and the Australian Greenhouse Office, in the
Department of the Environment and Water Resources.'




It features the Australian coat of arms twice and states:



'Copyright: © Commonwealth of Australia 2007.'








Click on the image above to see the report in full.



The publication makes it clear that climate change is the major threat to the reef.



And it says:



'The potential for climate change to severely affect corals has
already been demonstrated through the two severe mass bleaching events
that occurred on the GBR in 1998 and 2002. Loss of corals will have
catastrophic consequences for reef structure …. In addition, the
potential loss of reef-building corals has implications for the physical
structure of the GBR, with serious and lasting impacts for other
habitats, as well as for the people and industries that depend on them.'





It goes on:



'Mitigating the rate and extent of climate change is repeatedly
identified throughout this vulnerability assessment as a priority issue
that must be addressed if the GBR is to cope with climate change. There
is no component of the GBR ecosystem that is not sensitive to the
effects of climate change…. Climate change is driving shifts in
environmental conditions that are already beginning to exceed the narrow
tolerances of many GBR species and affect key processes.'







Creative Commons Licence

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License






How the oil and gas lobby throws mud on peer-reviewed research –

How the oil and gas lobby throws mud on peer-reviewed research –

How the oil and gas lobby throws mud on peer-reviewed research









Crikey’s business editor pulls apart a pro-CSG press release that is, to put it politely, a little bit bullshit.







On Tuesday, Southern Cross University announced the
publication of the first peer-reviewed study into fugitive greenhouse
gas emissions from coal seam gas fields in Australia.



Two years ago the university put out its preliminary
findings in the study, which looked at two CSG fields, one in Casino,
New South Wales, and the other in Tara, Queensland. The study was slammed
by industry and government because it identified significant coal-seam
gas leakage in both fields. Martin Ferguson, then the minister for
energy and resources, accused the
two scientists behind the study of being motivated by “short-lived
media opportunities”. The industry complained to the university about
it. 



Now the trail-blazing study
has been peer reviewed. The Australian Petroleum Production &
Exploration Association — a.k.a. ”the voice of Austalia’s oil and gas
industry” — put out this press release.
Crikey’s business editor Paddy Manning pulls it apart. (You can see a larger version of the image here.)












Saturday 22 November 2014

Tony Abbott running out of places to hide on envirnoment

Tony Abbott running out of places to hide on envirnoment

Tony Abbott running out of places to hide on envirnoment




Date

The Canberra Times


Editorial




Prime Minister Tony Abbott during a press conference at the conclusion of the G20 in Brisbane.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott during a press conference at the conclusion of the G20 in Brisbane. Photo: Andrew Meares







Five years after declaring that the argument behind climate
science was "absolute crap" – and  four months after proudly   repealing
 Labor's carbon tax – Tony Abbott this week stated  that strong and
binding emissions reductions targets must be set at next year's climate
conference in Paris. And he warned that the world could not afford
another disappointment like the Copenhagen summit in 2009. That
 statement, which  followed a meeting with French President Francois
Hollande, raised conjecture  that Mr Abbott was –  if not  the throes of
a  Damascene conversion  – then subtly shifting his position from
  leaner in chief of the developed world to willing, even  enthusiastic
lifter. "Targets have to be met," Mr Abbott warned, "and when it comes
to Kyoto, Australia more than met its reduction targets, and that can't
be said of other countries."




 When Mr Abbott gave his blunt assessment of climate change,
he qualified it by saying  "however, the politics of this are tough for
us". They have been especially tough of late. In a speech in Brisbane
last week, US President Barack Obama  declared that  no other country
had more at stake when it came to thinking about and acting on climate
change than Australia. "The incredible natural glory of  the Great
Barrier Reef is threatened," he said, adding that he wanted it protected
so that he could  visit the reef again, and later generations could
come and see it. Shortly after the G20 summit ended, Canadian Prime
Minister Stephen Harper  appeared to  abandon  his  opposition to making
a contribution  to the United Nations' Green Climate Fund – a position
shared with Mr Abbott. To add  insult to injury,  a group of senior
British Conservative  politicians (including  Minister for Energy Greg
Barker)  suggested late this week that  Mr Abbott's position on climate
change  was "baffling" and a betrayal not just of the  fundamental
tenets  of political conservatism but of the beliefs of former prime
minister Margaret Thatcher –  who Mr Abbott identifies as a political
guiding light and who in 1988 became one of the first global leaders to
identify climate change as a threat.





Mr Abbott's growing international isolation on this  crucial
environmental matter  has not   deterred his cheer squad at home,
however.  Media commentators  rebuked  Mr Obama   for his "impertinence"
 in not informing Mr Abbott beforehand about the contents of his
speech.  And, efforts may well be made to impugn the reputations of the
Conservative MPs who took Mr Abbot to task, though there is nothing to
suggest that they are anything other than competent politicians with a
good grasp of the science of climate change and an appreciation of the
need for an appropriate environmental policy response.





<p>







Earlier this week  Foreign Minister Julie Bishop contradicted
the president's claims about threat to the Great Barrier Reef,
suggesting that Australia was employing world's best practice to ensure
the reef was preserved for future generations. Paradoxically, the Abbott
government has been an enthusiastic advocate  for the enlargement of
the Abbot Point  coal terminal north of Mackay, in spite of fears the
dumping of dredge spoil will further degrade the reef. Indeed, the
Australian Academy of Science has cast doubt over the efficacy of
overarching  environmental safeguards, suggesting that the  reef's 2050
long-term sustainability plan will be inadequate to achieve the goal of
restoring or even maintaining   the diminished value of the reef.




Advertisement

Mr Abbott would now realise that there are fewer places for
him (and Australia) to hide on climate change. If the support of his
brother  prime minister in Canada evaporates, then he will be standing
side by side with  Libya, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela  and Egypt,
the last remaining climate-change holdouts. Such an unappealing prospect
might well explain the shift in his remarks  after meeting Mr Hollande.




Having made outright  opposition to effective climate change
measures a central pillar of his political success, Mr Abbott  faces  an
awkward task in transitioning to a more responsible and constructive
attitude. But transition he must. There will be an economic cost,  but
it won't be as great as he and his supporters think, particularly as
Australia's    emissions target  under the original Kyoto Protocol are
hardly onerous. And what jobs are lost are more than likely to be offset
by those created as a result of investment in new technologies.   




Thursday 20 November 2014

UK Tories slam Tony Abbott on climate policy

UK Tories slam Tony Abbott on climate policy

UK Tories slam Tony Abbott on climate policy




Date




Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott
Tony Abbott: described as "eccentric".







The attitude of Prime Minister Tony Abbott to the global
challenges of climate change is "eccentric", "baffling" and "flat
earther", according to a group of senior British Conservatives.




The group, including Prime Minister David Cameron's Minister
for Energy and a former Thatcher Minister and chairman of the
Conservative Party, says Mr Abbot's position on climate change
represents a betrayal of the fundamental ideals of Conservatism and
those of his political heroine, Margaret Thatcher.





In a series of wide-ranging, separate interviews on UK climate change policy with The Age,
they warn that Australia is taking enormous risks investing in coal and
will come under increasing market and political pressure to play its
part in the global battle against climate change.






Pressure predicted: Selwyn Gummer, Lord Deben, believes Tony Abbott has betrayed fundamental tenets of Conservatism.
Pressure predicted: Selwyn Gummer, Lord Deben, believes Tony Abbott has betrayed fundamental tenets of Conservatism. Photo: GreenBusiness.com






Their comments come almost 25 years to the day since former
British prime minister Margaret Thatcher addressed the United Nations to
place climate change on the global environmental agenda. "It is mankind
and his activities which are changing the environment of our planet in
damaging and dangerous ways,"  she said




Advertisement

Mr Abbott, as recently as June, insisted he should not be
stereotyped as a conventional traditionalist, declaring he wanted to be a
"reforming conservative" in the mould of Mrs Thatcher.




According to Lord Deben, chairman of the independent Climate
Change Commission and a minister in both the Thatcher and Major
governments,  Australia will come under increasing market pressure to
respond to the global shift toward renewable energy. 




A  former chairman of the British Conservative Party, Lord
Deben said Mr Abbott has betrayed the fundamental tenets of conservatism
itself.




 "I have no doubt that people like David Cameron will be
saying to Tony Abbott 'look conservatives are supposed to conserve, they
are supposed to hand on to the next generation something better than
they received themselves'."




Tim Yeo, chairman of the UK's parliamentary select committee
on energy and climate change and a former environment minister under
John Major, likened those who question the existence and the science of
climate change as "the flat earthers of the 16th century". 




"Some of us are very perplexed. I was last in Australia at
the beginning of last year, before the election and had conversations
with people on both sides of the political divide. I was amazed at some
of the views.




 "If I was Australian, I'd be concerned if my country's
economic future and prosperity became dependent on continued coal
export." 




The United Kingdom led the world in 2008 by legislating for
long-term, ambitious emissions reductions of 80 per cent by 2050 – and
has already achieved a 25 per cent drop on 1990 levels. In June, David
Cameron opened the world's largest offshore wind farm with 175 turbines
in the Thames Estuary. 




Almost 20 per cent of Britain's electricity is now produced
by renewables, with eight per cent powered by wind – equivalent to about
6.5 million homes. 




The UK's energy market reforms and the drive to transform the
economy to a low carbon model are supported by all the major political
parties. 




Greg Barker, David Cameron's Minister for Energy and Climate
Change until June this year said: "I think there is a lot of concern
about Australia and yes, perhaps it is disproportionate versus its place
in the global economy. But because of [our] close historical, emotional
and family ties, people are concerned, slightly baffled by the approach
that Australia is taking which looks, actually, slightly eccentric," he
said.




Mr Abbott declined to comment.



Tuesday 18 November 2014

G20 leaders slap down embarrassing Abbott and the COALition

G20 leaders slap down embarrassing Abbott and the COALition






(Image by John Graham)


The G20 delivered a stinging riposte to the Abbott
Government, which is now seen around the world as little more than an
arm of the fossil fuel industry.
Lachlan Barker reports.




MUCH HAS ALREADY BEEN WRITTEN about the gut-wrenching embarrassment
that all Australians suffered watching our prime minister talking with
world leaders at the G20.




My favourite was from LA Times journalist Robyn Dixon who described Tony Abbott as:



‘The shrimp of the school yard’.




This perfectly encapsulated how we all felt as we listened to Tony Abbott’s speech
to, frankly, bemused world leaders, as he told them of how his
Government had stopped the boats and how none of us ungrateful
Australians could see why it was so important to pay $7 to go see a
doctor.




It was really embarrassing stuff; I struggle to think of a way it could have been worse.



As if Angela Merkel and all the rest could care less about a $7 payment that....



Actually, I can’t even go on, it’s too hard to revisit it in written form.



Of course here in the environment section, the real issue and that is
an exact description, believe me, was climate change. Australia, sorry,
Tony Abbott, didn’t even want it discussed but, thankfully, U.S. President Barack Obama wasn’t having that and he made a speech ‒ direct in its nature ‒ to the Australian people, talking of the effects of climate change, warning of “drought, wildfires, flood and storm damage,” as well as saying:




"… the incredible natural glory of the Great Barrier Reef is threatened."




Obama added that he wished to be able to return with his daughters and see the Reef, and:



"I want them to be able to bring their daughters or sons to visit and I want that there 50 years from now."




 Of climate change’s effects he said:



“No nation is immune, and each nation must play its part."








It was a genuinely world leading stuff from a genuine world leader,
and so much at variance to the pint-sized utterings of our embarrassment
of a prime minister.




Thankfully, the world leaders that were there, did get climate change
discussed, and a communiqué was released, which one leader’s aide
described as trench warfare to get done. Tony Abbott fought tooth and nail against world sentiment to downplay the effects of coal on the world’s climate as part of this process.




Away from climate change, one thing that was on the G20’s agenda was two per cent economic growth,
and that is fair enough, as it is in essence an economic forum.
However, even this modest outcome was largely shown to be pointless by Professor John Kirton, co-director of the G20 Research Group at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs, who appeared on ABC TV’s Insiders program on Sunday, 16 November.




Professor Kirton quoted Angel Gurria, the Secretary-General of the OECD, and, said professor Kirton:



“Angel Gurria has said that if we don’t do something right here,
right now, to control climate change, the economic cost if going to be a
minus six per cent hit on GDP, it rather makes the plus two percent
that we are struggling to get here rather small in comparison.”





He then added:



“… so simply if you want a summit that is focussed on generating
on global economic growth you have to look at both sides of the balance
sheet, I think every business person knows that, not just trying to get
two more, but also stopping the loss of the six per cent.”





So arguing for economic growth in isolation of environmental destruction is once again shown to be a genuine waste of time.



However, one of the main proponents of this two per cent growth goal, Treasurer Joe Hockey, did show (finally) some grasp of reality in the run up to the G20.



Hockey said in an interview with Fran Kelly on Radio National:



“70 per cent of Australia’s economy is services, but it’s only 17
per cent of our exports. So what we’ve got to do is lift our export in
services and then we can supplement the massive export growth that we
have in resources.”





So it’s good that at least the Treasurer has finally caught up with
the rest of us, who have been saying for a long time that services are
indeed 70 per cent of the economy and are a damn sight less polluting
thing to export than mining products.








So why is Joe saying this now?



Well it seems that he has understood that resources exporting is in
severe decline and it’s time to back a more sustainable horse in this
race: services. It seems from his statement that a big part of the two
per cent growth he is looking for will come, not from mining, but from
services — education, health and finance are three examples.




Welcome to the twenty first century Joe.



But if the Treasurer is starting to orbit sanity, our prime minister
continues to delve deeper into the mire is nuttiness, as part of his
lunatic backing of coal against world sentiment, the prime minister said:




“The point I made in the G20 and perhaps it wasn’t the most
popular point I made, is coal is very important, it’s an important part
of the Australian economy, it’s an important part of the world’s energy
supply and it will be for decades to come.”





Well, Tony, one seriously questions the use of the plural (decades) in that statement.



Turns out that coal may be an important part of the world’s energy supply for a lot less time than that and here’s why.



Glencore, one of Australia’s
largest miners, have recently announced that they are temporarily
closing all their coal mines in Australia ‒ shuttering, it’s called ‒ for three weeks in December. This is due to the world oversupply of thermal coal, used in power generation.  This is reflected in the spot price of coal, which dropped another 3.11 per cent last month to $US68.45 a tonne, and is therefore now US$6 below the profitable line for coal production in Australia.




One bank, ANZ,
has predicted that the supply overhang will clear, possibly as early as
2016 or 2017, thus making the mining of thermal coal profitable again.
However, the supply overhang has to be cleared for the price to go up
again, and this is hardly likely if Australia continues to bring new
coal mines on line, as in the Galilee basin in Queensland, which will clearly only add to the oversupply problem.




Added to which there is a nexus of disaster for Australia’s coal
exporting looming, to wit: the above mentioned supply overhang
coinciding with China’s massive investment in renewable power. China has
already halved its coal imports, and with its avowed goal of creating 1.3 gigawatts of power from renewable sources, a week, for the next fifteen years, it could cease importing coal altogether.








India are going the same way, RenewEconomy tells us: 



‘… in a landmark announcement that has caught the global coal industry totally by surprise, India’s Energy Minister, Piyush Goyal has announced an ambitious target that could see India cease thermal coal imports within two to three years.’




This of course shows once more the insanity, the environmental and fiscal lunacy of the Carmichael Coal Mine
in Queensland. That mine is a massively destructive thing, with
deleterious effects on the nearby agricultural land, the Great Artesian
Basin, Australia’s greenhouse emissions and the Great Barrier Reef and
all to dig up unprofitable coal for India, which, as RenewEconomy has now shown, India doesn’t really want.




All of the above allows us to paraphrase the great Oscar Wilde:



“Economically speaking, the only thing worse than fighting climate change, is not fighting climate change."




And in answer to the prime minister’s assertion that coal will be
important for decades to come, we can say that coal will be important
for perhaps another decade — one.




Maybe.





Creative Commons Licence

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License



Monday 17 November 2014

Red faces for Tony Abbott on Green Climate Fund

Red faces for Tony Abbott on Green Climate Fund

Red faces for Tony Abbott on Green Climate Fund







Date
  • 5 reading now
















Help put a brake on climate change says Merkel

Speaking in Sydney, the German
Chancellor also spoke of the US spying scandal saying the German
political class doesn't need supervising.



The Abbott government has been left embarrassed on another
climate front with key ally Canada indicating that it will support a
United Nations climate fund to assist poor nations to cope with global
warming.




Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper, whom Prime Minister
Tony Abbott last month described as "a friend and almost a brother", has
told Canadian media his country will contribute to the Green Climate
Fund. He did not indicate how much Canada would give to the fund, which has an initial goal of raising $US10 billion ($11.4 billion).





German Chancellor Angela Merkel also added to international
calls on Australia to reveal its plans for cutting greenhouse gas
emissions by the first quarter of 2015, telling an audience in Sydney
that climate change "won't stop at the Pacific Islands".  Germany has
also committed to supporting the UN climate fund, as has Japan, the US. 






On the sidelines: A protester takes part in a climate change march in New York earlier this year. The Abbott government is "looking more and more sad, greedy and isolated" on the issue of climate change, Greens leader Christine Milne says.
On the sidelines: A protester takes part in a climate
change march in New York earlier this year. The Abbott government is
"looking more and more sad, greedy and isolated" on the issue of climate
change, Greens leader Christine Milne says. Photo: Reuters







"Climate change knows no borders," Mrs Merkel said a day
after the G20 summit wrapped up in Brisbane with action on climate
change contained in a list of commitments.




Advertisement

"It will not stop at the Pacific Islands."



The fund, based in South Korea,received a "game
changing" pledge of $US3 billion from United States President Barack
Obama during the weekend's G20 summit in Brisbane. A subsequent $US1.5
billion promise from Japan marked a "turning point" ahead of a pledging
conference planned for Berlin later this week.





Isolated: Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
Isolated: Prime Minister Tony Abbott.






Mr Abbott said Australia would not be contributing to the
fund. A year ago, the Prime Minister ruled out any new contributions to
"socialism masquerading as environmentalism" in the run-up to a UN
summit on climate change which included discussion of the Green Climate
Fund.




The Abbott government was "utterly isolated" on the issue of
the Green Climate Fund, said Tim Costello, chief executive of World
Vision and head of the Civil Society parallel group to the G20, dubbed
the C20.




The fund especially targets developing nations already being
affected by climate change, he said: "They have the worst land that's
already ecologically degraded, and are the most exposed to sea surges,
floods and droughts."




Australia already funds similar projects in the Pacific, Mr Costello said. "Why can't they take the next step?"



The government's rejection comes despite the G20's final
communique affirming "our support for mobilising finance for adaptation
and mitigation, such as the Green Climate Fund".




Environment Minister Greg Hunt earlier on Monday deflected
criticism about Australia's absence among contributors to the fund,
saying it had "just contributed $2.55 billion to reducing emissions at
home", in reference to the government's direct action plan to pay
polluters to curb carbon emissions.




The aim of the fund is to help developing nations cut back on
carbon pollution but also to prepare for the global warming impacts
already set in train.




"We've seen Tony Abbott dismiss the Green Climate Fund
– mocking it with childish jibes – when we have leaders of Kiribati and
Marshall Islands plead for this assistance," Labor's climate spokesman
Mark Butler said.




"Our smaller neighbours are vulnerable to rising sea levels,
increased drought and floods and the spread of vector-borne diseases,"
Mr Butler said. "As a rich, developed country, Australia cannot ignore
the impact of these events on Pacific Islands and other countries in our
region."