Australia se compromete con el Cambio Climático

Leo en BBC News que, después del anuncio que hizo George Bush hace un par de días, Australia también ha dado un giro a su política ambiental sobre el Cambio Climático.

El Primer ministro australiano John Howard ha anunciado que va a poner en marcha el mercado de emisiones en su país, como medida para luchar contra las exponenciales emisiones de dióxido de carbono, principal motor del actual calentamiento de la Tierra.

Este anuncio es importante porque, actualmente, Australia emite el 1% del total anual de CO₂ procedente de la quema de combustibles fósiles y es el país con más emisiones por persona de metano (otro gas de efecto invernadero por excelencia ya que por la quema de 1 molécula de este gas se generan 2 moléculas de CO₂).

A pesar que Australia firmó el Protocolo de Kyoto en 1997, sus emisiones de dióxido de carbono han ido aumentando hasta la fecha, sin que las autoridades pusieran ningún tipo de limitaciones. Aquí podeis ver la evolución de estas emisiones para el perido 1990 - 2000 según el gobierno australiano, y aquí la misma evolución para el periodo 1990 - 2004 según Secretaría de la Convención sobre el Cambio Climático de Naciones Unidas y teniendo y sin tenerlos en cuenta los intercambios de CO₂ con las masas forestales y los cambios históricos de uso del suelo (LULUFC según las siglas inglesas).

Aquí teneis la buena notícia:

Australia PM pledges climate plan
Australian Prime Minister John Howard has announced a shift in policy on climate change, promising to set up a carbon trading scheme to cut pollution. Mr Howard said he would set a target next year for limiting greenhouse gas emissions and also pledged to put in place a carbon trading scheme by 2012.

Australia is one of the worst polluters per head of population in the world.

Despite his new plans, Mr Howard has warned that setting a cap on carbon emissions would hurt the economy.

His announcement comes ahead of a national election later this year, in which Mr Howard will be seeking his fifth consecutive win. The opposition Labor party, which has a strong lead in the opinion polls, has portrayed the government as dithering and backward-looking on global warming, reports the BBC's Phil Mercer in Sydney.

Labor has pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 60% by 2050. Mr Howard does not plan to reveal his targets until next year, once the economic costs of carbon trading have been fully studied.

"Implementing an emissions trading scheme and setting a long-term goal for reducing emissions will be the most momentous economic decision Australia will take in the next decade," Mr Howard told an annual meeting of his Liberal Party.

"If we get this wrong it will do enormous damage to the economy, to jobs and to the economic well-being of ordinary Australians, especially low-income households."

'Better scheme'
Australia and the US are the only major industrialised nations not to ratify the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Mr Howard promised that Australia's carbon trading scheme would be better than those in place in Europe.

Australia has recently seen record drought conditions, which have harmed economic growth and caused widespread despair among the farming community.

Residents have been ordered to cut back on consumption and farm production has plummeted. Some experts believe that these parched conditions are the result of the world's hunger for fossil fuels, while others though see it as part of a natural cycle.

Whatever the arguments, many Australians want their leaders to be far more proactive when it comes to the environment, our correspondent says.