Australia’s conservative Liberal-National Prime Minister Tony Abbott and his Canadian counterpart Stephen Harper have reaffirmed they will put their economies before action on climate change.
Both conservative leaders have campaigned against carbon pricing, and in the face of United States President Barack Obama’s move to force power companies to cut emissions, the prime ministers said the taxes are “job-killing” measures that would hurt their economies.
ABC News reports Mr Abbott was given the warmest possible welcome as he arrived to meet Mr Harper at Parliament Hill in Ottawa for their bilateral talks.
Before the talks AAP Newsagency reports Mr Abbott said any future global agreement on climate change would not include carbon pricing.
“Stephen Harper and I are like-minded on this,” Mr Abbott told reporters in Ottawa.
“The argument is not about climate change, the argument is about the best means to respond to climate change and I believe that carbon taxes and emissions trading schemes are the wrong way to go.”
When the talks began Mr Abbott did not even try to hide his admiration for the more senior conservative statesman.
“I’m happy to call you an exemplar of centre-right leadership,” Mr Abbott said.
ABC News reports it is well known the prime ministers sing from the same song-sheet, so many of Mr Harper’s phrases had a familiar feel.
“Throughout your time as chair of the G20, you’ve used this international platform to encourage our counterparts in the major economies and beyond to boost economic growth, to lower taxes when possible and to eliminate harmful ones, most notably, the job-killing carbon tax,” Mr Harper said.
ABC News reports the two leaders are a unity ticket against carbon pricing, but both men say they are doing more to cut emissions than Mr Obama, who is currently pushing for global action.
Mr Abbott acknowledged that climate change is “a significant problem”, but he added: “it’s not the only or even the most important problem that the world faces.”
“We should do what we reasonably can to limit emissions and avoid climate change, man-made climate change, but we shouldn’t clobber the economy,” Mr Abbott said.
Mr Obama’s plan is to cut emissions from US coal plants 30 per cent by 2030, pushing the US closer to an emissions reduction target pledged at UN climate talks in 2010.
Canada, which has also withdrawn from the UN’s Kyoto Protocol, will miss its target.
Both countries have committed to reducing emissions by 17 per cent below their 2005 levels by 2020.
However, Canada produces less than two per cent of global emissions, while the US produces nearly 20 per cent.
“It’s not that we don’t seek to deal with climate change, but we seek to deal with it in a way that will protect and enhance our ability to create jobs and growth and not destroy jobs and growth in our country,” Mr Harper said.
“And, frankly, every single country in the world, this is their position: no country is going to undertake actions on climate change, no matter what they say, no country is going to take actions that are going to deliberately destroy jobs and growth in their country.
“We are just a little more frank about that, but that is the approach that every country is seeking.”
ABC News reports that in Australia, opposition Labor leader Bill Shorten has criticised the Prime Minister’s handling of the issue on his world trip.
“Tony Abbott is sticking his head in the sand and ignoring the problem.
“His Direct Action policy is an international joke,” he said in a statement.
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