PLEA Network

1 December 2015, Renew Economy, Paris, COP21: Turnbull ducks and weaves as world leaders lead. PARIS: As 150 country leaders spoke in Paris on Monday, mostly reinforcing their commitment to a global agreement that aims to limit global warming to a maximum 2°C, Australia prime minister Malcolm Turnbull was forced to duck and weave his way through the first day of talks. The country leaders were invited to Paris to try to remove roadblocks and inspire others to act. Most – including the leaders of the US, China, Mexico,  host France and other EU countries, developing nations, and even Russia – did exactly that. But the day started badly for Australia with the revelation that it had snubbed – apparently, at the last minute and under pressure from the conservative rump of the Coalition government – an invitation to join a 40-country campaign to remove fossil fuel subsidies. Australia was also conspicuously absent when many of the world’s major economies held a special event to underline their support for a carbon price. Australia, of course, was the first country in the world to remove a carbon price when Tony Abbott was in power. Australia announced it was adding $1 billion into climate financing fund over five years, but again appeared to be pulling much of this money from the foreign aid budget. It also pledged an extra $100 million for clean technology research, at the same time as refusing to remove legislation that would dismantle the $10 billion Clean Energy Finance Corp and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, from which it has stripped twice as much research funding. Read More here