Report Slams Australian Government For Using Outdated Science For Climate Planning

[hatrack]

The Rudd Government's climate change policy has already been overtaken by new science and will impose a "death sentence" on Australia unless urgently updated, say the authors of a new report. Former Victorian government adviser Phillip Sutton and David Spratt, founder of climate change group CarbonEquity, say the Government's policy lacks scientific depth and has been cobbled together from reports now surpassed by new data on the rate and scale of global warming.

In a hard-hitting report for Friends of the Earth Australia, they claim the Government's commitment to reduce greenhouse emissions by 60 per cent by 2050 locks Australia into supporting a dangerous 3 degree rise in global temperature and is based on a United Nations report 12 years out of date. The Melbourne-based policy analysts also cast doubt on the scope and relevance of the climate change review being conducted for the Federal Government by Australian National University economist Professor Ross Garnaut.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has said the review's findings will guide future policies on climate, but Mr Spratt claims its terms of reference pre-date the groundbreaking climate change report by British economist Sir Nicholas Stern. "The Rudd Government urgently needs to review and update its terms of reference if the inquiry is to remain relevant, otherwise it's like batting information back and forth like a tennis match, so the Government can keep avoiding responsibility," he said.

The report, Climate Code Red: The Case for a Sustainable Emergency, accuses the Rudd Government of adopting a timid "culture of compromise" and low expectations in mapping a national response to climate change.

EDIT

http://canberra.yourguide.com.au/news/local/general/report-attacks-climate-policy/1174418.html