Hon Paul Holloway The Danish Minister for Climate and Energy Connie Hedegaard led a roundtable discussion in Melbourne to provide an open forum in advance of the United Nations Climate Change Conference to be held in December in Denmark.
The Green Building Council Australia, represented by Trudy-Ann King, state manager of Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania.
This meeting of representatives from various industry and environmental groups involved in the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme debate in Australia highlighted the need for Australia and Japan to commit to strong carbon reduction targets in the next two to three months.
The Minister stressed the importance of achieving a global commitment in Copenhagen and that Australia has a strong role to play in leading the world to the only tenable outcome, commitment to reduction targets between 25 per cent and 40 per cent, with accompanying financial support for developing nations.
Hedegaard said this would help send a strong message to the US Senate that the Pacific region, not only Europe, is committed to carbon reduction and the abatement of global warming.
Denmark’s commitment to a 21 per cent reduction by 2012 on 1990 carbon output has led to a strengthening of the Danish economy with the following statistics indicative of the positive impact that this commitment has generated:
- Shift from 98 per cent dependent on Middle East oil to non-fossil fuel and clean energy production;
- Now export energy to Europe;
- Tens of thousands of jobs have been created and mainly in blue collar industry, which has regenerated rural economies;
- Exports have increase by 13 per cent overall and by 20 per cent in the area of energy efficiency;
- Imports have decreased by 6 per cent;
- Unemployment in Denmark currently sits at 2.6 per cent.
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