FED:Good progress at Durban: Combet

AAP General News (Australia)
12-06-2011
FED:Good progress at Durban: Combet

CANBERRA, Dec 6 AAP - Climate Change Minister Greg Combet believes UN climate change
talks are making good progress even though a comprehensive agreement will not be reached
in Durban.

Mr Combet, who is attending the talks in South Africa, said delegates were trying to
think of the best way forward for an ultimate deal.

"But having said that, there's also a lot of important building blocks being worked
over in considerable detail," he told ABC Radio on Tuesday.

"There's good progress being made on that front."

Mr Combet has been having discussions with his international colleagues about the development
of carbon markets.

Australia will introduce a $23-a-tonne carbon tax on July 1, 2012 ahead of a market-based
emissions trading scheme in 2015.

Mr Combet said a comprehensive agreement involving all the major emitters of greenhouse
gases would not be concluded at the Durban talks.

"But we can make some significant progress towards it."

Opposition climate action spokesman Greg Hunt says Treasury modelling for the carbon
tax would be wrong because it assumed the existence of a global treaty.

In the absence of such a treaty, there should be a push for a global rainforest recovery
agreement.

That was "real action" that could occur quickly with practical outcomes, Mr Hunt said.

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KEYWORD: CLIMATE

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