With Australia nearing the passing of domestic climate change legislation, the difficulties of arriving at a binding pact in Copenhagen are also being highlighted.
Even in the face of the serious effects of climate change in Australia, where major rivers are shrinking and increasingly severe droughts are affecting agriculture, some politicians are still convinced that global warming is a hoax, CIG has learned.
The proposed climate policy which is aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions is receiving resistance from members of the conservative opposition in parliament where the bill is stalled.
The party’s third most senior member and Senate leader Mr Nick Minchin is convinced climate change is all a conspiracy, saying, "For the extreme left it has provided the opportunity to do what they've always wanted to do, to sort of de-industrialize the Western world. The collapse of communism was a disaster for the left. They embraced environmentalism as their new religion.”
Similar sentiments have been heard in other industrialized nations including the U.S. ahead of the Copenhagen talks, and global leaders are concerned, CIG believes.
Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown has targeted international leaders, including the U.S.’s President Barack Obama, saying that they "cannot afford to fail" in Copenhagen, which some experts are touting as the "most important international gathering of our time."
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd hopes to have seen his nation’s bill passed into legislation before he arrives at the December negotiations.
