Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Hansard source

We understand the Greens’ complete obsession with this issue of climate change. I think it is a matter of record that the government accepts that the climate is changing; indeed, I think it is obvious that the climate has been changing since the planet was formed. But we do understand that there is evidence that there is global warming occurring. I think what the Prime Minister was referring to in his question was that he acknowledges that there remains some dispute about the extent of that warming and the causes of it. That is a matter of scientific dispute and I think I noticed just this week that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has significantly reduced its forecasts for temperature rises over the course of the 21st century.

We do not, I am advised—Senator Ian Campbell may wish to correct me—have a particular temperature rise which we say would trigger certain consequences. But I should state for the record the very substantial commitment by this government to seek to mitigate the effects of climate change and to ensure Australia’s adaptation to climate change. Indeed, Senator Campbell has done an outstanding job as the minister for environment in ensuring that Australia is at the forefront of international efforts to seek to ensure we have practicable, sensible and affordable proposals, initiatives and policies to deal with this particular issue.

It is a fact of life that we have not signed the Kyoto protocol. We have said on many occasions we see no point in that. When substantial greenhouse gas emitters like the United States, China and India are not party to it, there is absolutely no point in signing that protocol. Nevertheless, we are one of the very few countries in the world, through our initiatives, commitment and investment, that are actually meeting the targets that were set for Australia. Other countries, which have signed, are nowhere near meeting their targets.

We are also signed up to the new Asia-Pacific initiative, which we think has enormous potential. The real key to this, as Senator Campbell has so eloquently put it on many occasions, is to ensure that there is the investment in the technological solutions required to ensure that our planet is able to adapt to climate change and to do what we can, realistically and affordably, to mitigate and contain the extent of climate change.

I think the Prime Minister was quite proper in his remarks. We stand entirely behind and beside his remarks in which he acknowledges the effects of, but properly acknowledges the continuing dispute about, the global warming forecast through the 21st century and, indeed, the extent to which both human activity and other forces are contributing to climate change.