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PRIME MINISTER
FOR MEDIA 6 APRIL 1989
The Government has decided on a national program for
responding to the global threat posed by the Greenhouse
effect. The Government's strategy involves a research-oriented
program of action in. the first instance. A great deal has
yet to be learned about the Greenhouse effect, its timing
and impact on different countries and regions. We cannot
sit and wait until the effects of global warming are upon us
and then start working out how we should deal with them.
Modelling of those effects must start in earnest immediately
so that we are in a position to anticipate and deal with the
Greenhouse effect.
To ensure the Government is provided with accurate and
timely advice, a National Greenhouse Advisory Committee of
up to six experts will be appointed.
A key task for the National Greenhouse Advisory Committee
will be to provide advice on priority areas for further
Greenhouse research and set objectives for a dedicated
research grants scheme. The Committee will also have the
important role of promoting public understanding of
Greenhouse issues.
To give effect to the first stage of the Government's
strategy, $ 7.8 million will be provided between now and
June 1990 for Greenhouse research and policy support.
The bulk of the funding, $ 5.54 million, will be directed to
CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology to enable full advantage
to be taken of existinq expertise and to build on work
already done. This will provide an important first
instalment of the national Greenhouse research program.
other elements of the funding will enable:
Australia to maintain its close association with the-
World Climate Impact Studies Programme being undertaken
by the United Nations Environment Program;
The Academy of Science to assist the International
Geosphere-Biosphere Program, which studies the physical,
chemical and biological processes that regulate the
total earth system; and
The establishment of a comprehensive national climate
program linked into the World Meteorological
Organisation's World Climate Programme and the Second
World Climate Conference in 1990 to be examined.
Greenhouse cannot be dismissed as just another environmental
problem. It has the potential to change fundamentally
within a single lifetime the way all nations and peoples
live and work.
It clearly signals that we must reassess the way in which we
use the earth's resources.
Through the Government's program for dealing with the twin
problems of the Greenhouse effect and ozone layer depletion
we are putting Australia at the forefront of international
efforts to protect the earth's fragile natural environment.
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