Australia under fire in Paris for its negotiating trickery

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ustralia is under fire at the Paris climate talks amid concern it is taking advantage of overly flexible rules to claim greenhouse gas emissions are falling when they are actually on the increase.

Alliance of Small
Island States.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull drew applause from fellow leaders at Monday's summit opening when he declared that Australia would ratify the second phase of the Kyoto Protocol - the existing climate treaty that applies to some industrialised countries only.

Australia is relying on its negotiating teams securing a definition of emissions that allows the country to count a reduction in deforestation towards its target.

However, delegates from a grouping called the Association of Small Island States expressed concern that the definition would in reality allow Australia to increase its industrial emissions by 2020 to about 11 per cent above 2000 levels while still being able to claim it is meeting its target of a 5 per cent cut in that period.

Read the story by Tom Arup and Peter Hannam in today’s Melbourne Age - “Paris UN Climate Conference 2015: Turnbull's Kyoto pledge generates angst.”