Australia’s conservative Liberal-National government remains under strong pressure from the United States to include climate change as an agenda item at the G20 summit later this year.
Continuing the pressure on Australia the US Ambassador to Australia has said President Barack Obama’s administration will push for climate change to be discussed at this year’s G20 summit, even if the federal government does not want it on the agenda.
AAP Newsagency reports US Ambassador John Berry said his country’s G20 representatives, known as sherpas, were already raising climate change in the lead up to November’s summit in the Queensland state capital, Brisbane.
Both the US and the European Union have made specific requests for climate change to be on the agenda and Mr Obama is understood to have raised the issue with the conservative Liberal-National Prime Minister Tony Abbott during recent talks in Washington.
Mr Berry, a passionate conservationist, said President Obama believed climate change was a “critical” issue and his administration wouldn’t shy away from encouraging all nations to do their part.
“It’s one the United States will raise in every international forum,” he told the National Press Club in the national capital, Canberra.
“It is one we will continue to press on,” Mr Berry said
Some countries have criticised Australia for neglecting to put climate change on the G20 agenda, with the government opting to focus on sustained economic growth, trade, and investment.
AAP reports Ambassador Berry said the US shared these objectives, but also believed they could be advanced while making the planet healthier.
“The president believes we can do this (address climate change) without damaging or hurting the economy,” he said.
Mr Berry said the US wanted other countries to set aggressive renewable energy and carbon reduction goals.
In doing this he cited the success of global action to fix the ozone layer, and he said similar co-operation could help tackle environmental issues.
The Obama administration has pledged to cut its emissions by 30 per cent by 2030, and will be pushing each country to adopt their own “aggressive” targets to do their fair share.
“Forget the science, rather than argue about that till the cows come home, the worst case if we make these investments is we end up with cleaner air for our children to breathe,” he said.
AAP reports Trade Minister Andrew Robb conceded that while climate change was off the agenda, Australia would not stop any country from discussing whatever matter they wished.
“So we quite welcome climate change if it was raised by the US or by any other country,” he told reporters in China where he is on an official visit.
The opposition Labor Party’s climate change spokesman Mark Butler said the government was out of step with the rest of the world on climate change but could not ignore the issue for much longer.