Robyn Eckersley questions Australia's climate diplomacy

Robyn Eckersley - from the University of
Melbourne, who is presently in Paris.

The diplomacy could be cast in positive terms, on the surface at least.

During the first week of the climate negotiations in Paris, Australia displayed a preparedness to be flexible and serve as a broker of compromises in the negotiations over the draft Paris Agreement.

Australia has also declared its support for the inclusion of a temperature goal to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, which is a matter very dear to the hearts of Pacific Island nations for whom climate change is a fundamental existential threat.

Australia will serve as Co-chair (with South Africa) of the Green Climate Fund in 2016, which will be channelling money to the most vulnerable countries in the Pacific and elsewhere to enhance their preparedness for the harmful impacts arising from a much warmer world.

Read the report by the Professor and Chair of the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne, Robyn Eckersley, who is in Paris - “Australia’s climate diplomacy like a doughnut: empty in the middle.”