Isra-Mart srl:Goverment ‘must speed up carbon price’

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The federal government is hopeful of a future binding global agreement on climate change following a last-minute deal in Cancun, Mexico.

More than 190 countries represented at the United Nations talks agreed to seek “deep cuts” in carbon emissions, which are linked to global warming.

For the first time, the world’s major emitters have agreed to report on how they are reducing carbon pollution in their own economies.

The Cancun conference failed to reach a binding agreement on emission targets but Acting Prime Minister Wayne Swan has suggested the latest developments could lead to a future pact between the world’s polluters.

“This is a well-balanced outcome,” he told reporters in Canberra on Sunday.

“It puts in place the building blocks of future negotiations, it paves the way for eventually a comprehensive agreement.”

Mr Swan said a carbon price would remain central to the government’s efforts to tackle climate change.

But opposition climate action spokesman Greg Hunt said the Cancun conference was not a mandate for Labor to push for a carbon price.

“It shouldn’t be an excuse by the Gillard government to impose a great, big new tax on electricity,” his spokeswoman said.

‘Government must act faster’

Conversely The Climate Institute, a member of the official non-government roundtable on climate change, has urged the government to move faster on legislating a carbon price.

“Just before dawn overnight in Mexico, the UN got its mojo back in terms of taking action on pollution and climate change,” the institute’s chief executive John Connor told reporters in Sydney.

“It’s really time Australia got cracking with some action here and that’s the challenge for the Australian parliament so we can match international efforts.”

The 16th UN framework convention on climate change also agreed to start a new “green climate fund” to manage billions of dollars in aid to poor nations.

It anchors pledges made by developed and developing nations at the 2009 Copenhagen conference.

The global fund would become operational in late 2011 and help developing nations deal with climate change.

Aid group Oxfam Australia said the new fund would help those vulnerable nations.

But it criticised Cancun for failing to resolve where long-term climate financing would come from.

“Negotiators have missed an opportunity to implement a global emissions reductions scheme or levies on international aviation and shipping that could generate the long-term finance needs of developing countries,” Oxfam’s climate change adviser Kelly Dent said in a statement.

The conference also agreed to put in place a mechanism for developing nations to reduce carbon emissions that result from deforestation, a major source of global carbon emissions.

Debate on a larger pact was deferred to the 2011 conference in Durban, South Africa.

Climate Change Minister Greg Combet, who represented Australia, on Saturday night hailed the Cancun agreement as an important step in achieving a comprehensive international agreement covering all major carbon emitters.

“This is important because it provides an agreed pathway to achieve major emissions cuts,” Mr Combet said.

“This is the first time that all major emitters have agreed to report to the world community their commitments and efforts to reduce carbon pollution in their own economies.”