COP15 Chair Connie Hedegaard. Credit: Mogens Engelund
By Rich Bowden:
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has been accused of both lying to his people on climate change and of being one of the leaders of the move to destroying the Kyoto agreement.
The inflammatory remarks were made by Lumumba Di-Aping, the chief negotiator at the Copenhagen climate talks who is negotiating on behalf of China and the G77 developing nations. Mr Di-Aping made the comments as world leaders, including Mr Rudd, began arriving in the Danish capital to attempt to hammer out a meaningful agreement.
The ABC quoted Di-Aping as saying the Australian prime minister had backed away from earlier commitments on climate change.
“The message Kevin Rudd is giving to his people, his citizens, is a fabrication, it’s fiction,” he said.
“It does not relate to the facts because his actions are climate change scepticism in action.
“All that Australia has done so far is simply not good enough.”
“It’s puzzling in the sense that here is a Prime Minister who actually won the elections because of his commitment to climate change,” he added.
“He was the only Prime Minister who came and clearly said we have to do something, we have to join Kyoto protocol and all the rest.
“And within a very short period of time he changes his mind, changes his position, he starts acting as if he has been converted into climate change scepticism. All what Australia has done so far is simply not good enough.”
He continued to say that Australia was looking to gain economic advantage by siding with the developed nations against undeveloped countries and in doing so, wanted to “kill” the Kyoto agreement which placed limits on developed countries’ carbon emissions.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Credit: djackmanson/flickr
“Australia is committed to killing Kyoto,” he said. “All the actions of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is basically a move away and a killing of Kyoto Protocol.”
Meanwhile Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has arrived in Copenhagen and delivered a pessimistic view that any agreed outcome at the summit which is due to finish Friday, will be delivered.
“There’s absolutely no guarantee of success,” Mr Rudd told reporters. “I just believe in telling it like it is.”
However he promised to work with other leaders to achieve a deal.
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