Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has promised to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions 5 to 15 percent by 2020, prompting criticism from environmentalists that the targets are too low and that the plan offers too many exemptions to industries to continue releasing CO2. Under the plan, Australian emissions could be reduced by as much as 15 percent below 2000 levels if a global greenhouse gas reduction agreement is reached next year in Copenhagen; the European Union last week approved a plan to reduce emissions 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. The Australian plan would create a cap-and-trade program
in 2010 under which industries must steadily reduce emissions and purchase permits to release greenhouse gases. However, Rudd’s plan offers major emissions exemptions for iron and aluminum producers and the agricultural sector, and promises billions of dollars in compensation to the coal-fired power industry. Environmentalists roundly condemned Rudd’s plan, saying the proposed cuts by 2020 are too modest. “You could say the decision came down to a choice between the environment and the economy and at this stage it looks like the economy has won,” said one critic.
Kevin Rudd