I have appointed Mr Roger Beale AM as my Representative on Climate Change for the purposes of following up my recent discussions on climate change with President Clinton, Mr Hashimoto and Mr Blair.
Mr Beale, Secretary of the Department of the Environment, Sport and Territories, will lead a small taskforce of officials including Australia's Ambassador for the Environment, Mr Howard Bamsey.
The taskforce will visit Washington, Tokyo and London to explain Australia's views on climate change to senior government advisers.
The taskforce will set out the steps Australia is already taking to help limit its greenhouse gas emissions and underline Australia's commitment to pulling its weight in responding to climate change.
In the government's view, there is still time before the Kyoto meeting to develop a realistic and fair outcome based on differentiation that would have a better chance of being implemented than the options being proposed, in particular by the EU.
An approach imposing mandatory uniform targets for developed countries does not represent the best approach for a better global environment and is not realistic or fair.
Mandatory uniform targets for developed countries would be inequitable, in not sharing the burden of controlling greenhouse gas emissions fairly between countries.
They would reduce economic growth regionally and globally, in not allowing global investment and trade patterns to reflect the comparative advantages of countries in production and use of energy.
They would be ineffective in failing to constrain the burgeoning emissions from the major developing economies.
The taskforce will play an important role in pursuing Australia's climate change strategy by ensuring that the most senior advisers in key capitals fully understand Australia's position.
20 July 1997