Kyoto benefits 'being missed'

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EVIDENCE was emerging that Australia had missed out on business opportunities because of its refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol, Labor said today. The international plan to tackle global warming through reducing greenhouse gas emissions and engaging in emissions trading has the support of the Opposition, but not the Federal Government. Opposition environment spokesman Anthony Albanese said the Government's stubborn refusal to sign the agreement means Australian business is being left behind.

"Countries that have ratified the Kyoto Protocol are taking significant steps to tackle climate change and companies in those countries are reaping benefits as a result," Mr Albanese said. "Because Australia has not ratified Kyoto, any work Australian companies do to reduce greenhouse emissions will have limited benefits for those companies."

Mr Albanese said Australian companies such as Pacific Hydro had had to use foreign entities to engage in the lucrative emission trading and clean development market. He said the Kyoto Protocol has flexible mechanisms and incentives to encourage clean development.
"Monday's agreement between the European Union and China over clean coal technology, energy efficiency and renewable energy will reduce the energy intensity of their economies and reinforce cooperation on the Kyoto Protocol's clean development mechanism," Mr Albanese said.

He said because China and the EU were the world's second and third biggest emitters of carbon dioxide and both are committed to the Kyoto Protocol, European companies which invested in China under this agreement would receive huge benefits that could be traded or kept as assets. "In August, Japanese companies signed a deal worth $320 million under the Kyoto Protocol to assist with a dangerous chemical decomposition project in China. "Under the Kyoto Protocol, construction has started on the $560m West African Gas Pipeline which will transport gas from Nigerian oil fields to Benin, Ghana and Togo.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16543537%255E1702,00.html