We Can't Pay For China's Growth: Stoner

Sun Herald

Sunday July 6, 2008

By Lisa Carty NSW Political Editor

AUSTRALIAN efforts to cut greenhouse emissions will be cancelled out by China, where emissions are tipped to grow by more than 10 per cent a year, NSW Nationals leader Andrew Stoner has said.

It was unreasonable to expect Australian families already under financial pressure to pay more for essentials when other countries were not pulling their weight, he said after the release of the Garnaut report into climate change yesterday.

"Hard-working Australians shouldn't cop it in the neck on climate change if other countries aren't subject to the same rules," Mr Stoner said. "We shouldn't have to bear the brunt of this international problem, with prices going up and the economy taking a dive, if countries like China will eclipse our greenhouse savings anyway.

"Even if Australia stopped producing carbon altogether, China alone would produce more emissions than what we would save, within just nine months.

"It might make North Shore doctors' wives feel good about themselves, but it doesn't make any sense to the families of western Sydney and regional and rural NSW who are struggling just to make ends meet."

Mr Stoner urged the Rudd Government not to over-react to the report, which said it was vital to cut emissions to save lives and landmarks.

Professor Ross Garnaut, speaking on Friday, said Australia would face killer heatwaves and the destruction of the Great Barrier Reef and Kakadu unless an emissions trading scheme was introduced to encourage the use of green energy.

Such a scheme would increase the cost of food, petrol and energy but the cost of not having a scheme would be far greater, he warned.

Mr Stoner said research from the University of California concluded previous estimates of China's emissions had been dramatically understated.

"We can't lose sight of the fact that Australia produces just 2 per cent of global emissions," Mr Stoner said. "It's one thing to say let's all do our bit but Kevin Rudd must not trash the economy and send up petrol and power prices when our savings will be eclipsed by China anyway.

"If China is going for gold on emissions then Australia should put in place the framework for technological advances instead of slapping yet another tax on people already doing it tough with high petrol and grocery prices and interest rates."

The Mandarin-speaking Prime Minister should be very familiar with China's contribution to the world's greenhouse gas emissions, Mr Stoner said.

KEY POINTS FROM THE GARNAUT REPORT

* Australia must introduce an emissions trading scheme in 2010 to discourage the use of energy that pollutes.

* Australians must accept that the price of petrol, food, power and gas will increase or face economic loss and environmental destruction.

* If we do nothing, there will be up to 9500 heatwave deaths a year.

* There will also be the destruction of the Great Barrier Reef, an end to agriculture in the Murray-Darling Basin by 2100 and 5.5 million people will be exposed to dengue virus.

* As well, there will be a GDP collapse of 4.8 per cent, with a 7.8 per cent fall in real wages.

* There will also be political instability in neighbouring countries.

© 2008 Sun Herald

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