Australia, the US, China, India and South Korea are getting together to develop technologies that would help curb greenhouse-gas emissions, officials in Canberra said yesterday.
The countries linked in an as-yet unannounced initiative that is called the Asia Pacific Partnership for Clean Development and Climate account for more than 40 percent of global greenhouse-gas emissions, Environment Minister Ian Campbell told reporters.
"By moving more and more towards renewable energy such as solar and wind and a whole range of technologies that we can develop here in Australia and ultimately export to places like China and India, building partnerships with these countries is going to be the solution," Campbell said.
PHOTO: AFP
Australia and the US are the only two rich countries that have refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement that sets binding targets for reducing the emissions of carbon monoxide and other gases that are blamed for global warming and climate change.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard agreed to join the US initiative when he met President George W. Bush in Washington last week. Howard also held a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was also visiting the US capital last week.
Australia -- on a per-capita basis the world's worst polluter -- won't sign the Kyoto Protocol because it wants to continue to rely on its large coal reserves for most of its electricity generation.
Canberra also has argued that poor countries like China and India that are big polluters as well should also participate in international efforts to slow climate change. Instead, they have won reprieves because their economies are still developing.
Campbell conceded that climate change is a reality but argued that Australians must not be asked to make any lifestyle sacrifices to keep it in check.
The price of petrol in Australia is one-third the price in Europe, and one in five new passenger vehicles registered in Australia is a fuel-guzzling four-wheel-drive with a government subsidy.
In addition, the Australian government has set no targets for shifting away from its reliance on coal for power generation.
The Labor Party's Anthony Albanese, the opposition environmental spokesmen in parliament, said the government would sign on to the Kyoto Protocol if it were serious about fighting climate change.
"A secret regional pact? It sounds like government spin," Albanese said.
The international environmental organization Greenpeace also denounced what would be a voluntary program, arguing that Canberra should embrace Kyoto along with other rich countries.
To make its point, Greenpeace used its ship to blockade Newcastle Harbor and pause activity at the world's biggest coal port.
The five-hour protest ended when police boarded the ship, arrested the captain, Derek Nicholls, and detained the crew.
A ship that appears to be taking on the identity of a scrapped gas carrier exited the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, showing how strategies to get through the waterway are evolving as the Middle East war progresses. The vessel identifying as liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier Jamal left the Strait on Friday morning, ship-tracking data show. However, the same tanker was also recorded as having beached at an Indian demolition yard in October last year, where it is being broken up, according to market participants and port agent’s reports. The ship claiming to be Jamal is likely a zombie vessel that
Japan is to downgrade its description of ties with China from “one of its most important” in an annual diplomatic report, according to a draft reviewed by Reuters, as relations with Beijing worsen. This year’s Diplomatic Bluebook, which Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government is expected to approve next month, would instead describe China as an important neighbor and the relationship as “strategic” and “mutually beneficial.” The draft cites a series of confrontations with Beijing over the past year, including export controls on rare earths, radar lock-ons targeting Japanese military aircraft and increased pressure around Taiwan. The shift in tone underscores a deterioration
LAW CONSTRAINTS: The US has been pressing allies to send warships to open the Strait, but Tokyo’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution Japan could consider deploying its military for minesweeping in the Strait of Hormuz if a ceasefire is reached in the war on Iran, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi said yesterday. “If there were to be a complete ceasefire, hypothetically speaking, then things like minesweeping could come up,” Motegi said. “This is purely hypothetical, but if a ceasefire were established and naval mines were creating an obstacle, then I think that would be something to consider.” Japan’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution, but 2015 security legislation allows Tokyo to use its Self-Defense Forces overseas if an attack,
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) yesterday faced a regional election battle in Rhineland-Palatinate, now held by the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD). Merz’s CDU has enjoyed a narrow poll lead over the SPD — their coalition partners at the national level — who have ruled the mid-sized state for 35 years. Polling third is the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which spells a greater threat to the two centrist parties in several state elections in September in the country’s ex-communist east. The picturesque state of Rhineland-Palatinate, bordering France, Belgium and Luxembourg and with a population of about 4 million,
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