Now you all know that ECO doesn’t like to be rude to Parties, but surely all would admit that Australia is carrying excess carbon weight and needs to lose some carbon flab. So ECO was delighted to hear a few weeks back that Australia was signing up as a member of the KP2 carbon weight loss club. ECO had visions of a trim physique of a zero-carbon economy.
But oh dear Australia – what happened with your target? 99.5% of carbon emissions – really? That’s a carbon loss goal so small that a bit of rounding and pffft it’s gone. Haven’t you heard that carbon flab is bad for your health? The UNEP doctor has said you need to trim down by 25-40% for all our sakes. Surely a sporty nation like yours knows about “no pain no gain”? Especially as your own economy doctor Garnaut has said the sooner you start the easier it will be.
Could your fossil fuel addiction be swaying your resolve? ECO knows you have all those stashes – but you’ve got amazing clean energy resources as well to help wean you off.
So where do we go from here? Well you do have a reasonable weight loss goal in column 6 and there’s plenty of support meetings over the next two weeks. Let’s hear you stand up and say: “My name is Australia, I’ve been on the wrong path, but I’m going to make Kyoto count and commit to strong targets and strong rules.”