13 November 2009

UK envoy says 'move on' to climate change sceptics

BRITAIN'S new high commissioner in Canberra, Baroness Valerie Amos, has expressed surprise that Australians are still debating whether humans cause climate change and says other nations such as her own have long since ''moved on''.

British envoys tend to be among the most influential of the foreign diplomats in Canberra and usually have a direct line to senior political and business leaders.

When she first met Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, on her third day in the country, Baroness Amos presented him with a world map showing the potentially horrific consequences of rising temperatures, including the risk of more dangerous bushfires across Australia.

''Australia as a country has seen the impact of some of this, in terms of drought and what is happening with annual fires,'' she said.

''I was a bit surprised at the negativity of some of the debate ... It would be great for Australia to be out there and leading the way. Being a resource-rich country does not mean that, in putting in place measures that lead to clean coal technology and lower emissions, economically you need to fall behind.''

Extract taken from original article by Jonathan Pearlman in The Age, 13 November 2009.  Read the full article.