Australia left in the shade over coal

Funafuti, Tuvalu: Pacific leaders have left Australia isolated over the future of coal in the region after a marathon summit meeting on Thursday night, as fears grow that China will seek to exploit diplomatic differences in the region over climate change.

Kiribati's President Taneti Maamau, Cook Islands
 Prime Minister Henry Puna, Tonga's Prime Minister
Akilisi Pohiva, Scott Morrison and Solomon Islands
 Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare. 

Representatives from Beijing will address the Pacific Island Forum in Tuvalu on Friday after a tense and lengthy leaders' retreat where Prime Minister Scott Morrison attempted to persuade his counterparts against a joint declaration of a climate emergency.

Global heavyweights will turn the international focus on the 18-nation meeting when US Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt speaks with leaders, followed by China's special envoy to the Pacific Islands, Wang Xuefeng.

Read the story from The Age by Rob Harris - “Australia left in the shade over coal.”

Kyoto promises leave Australia dangling

Five big developed countries have voluntarily cancelled emission reduction “credits” achieved by overshooting their first Kyoto Protocol greenhouse targets – the same kind of credits Australia is banking to boast it has already “met and beaten” its international pledges.

Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden and Britain have announced they will cancel 634.6m tonnes of emission reduction credits they were technically able to count towards their targets for the second Kyoto period, in a bid to overcome what has been described as a giant “hot air” loophole.

Australia, in stark contrast, is banking 128m tonnes of carryover from overshooting its lenient target in the first Kyoto commitment period and using it to be able to claim – as the Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, did in his speech to the Paris summit – that it is already on track to meet its second pledge.

Read The Guardian story - “Australia isolated as developed nations cancel carry over credits fromKyoto.”