APEC meeting to focus on climate change, US stalls, political bluster to prevail

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The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is meeting this week in Australia and according to the conference chair, the goal will be to reach a consensus on a greenhouse gas emissionsย strategy.

โ€œWe have here โ€ฆ the world’s biggest emitters โ€” China and the United States โ€” and to have that discussion with them and to see if we can get an agreement on principles for managing carbon emissions and cooperation across the world’s major economies would be a really good step forward,โ€ said Australian Treasurer Peterย Costello.

Not surprisingly, the US contingent to the APEC meeting is downplaying the likelihood of such an outcome. The US is claiming that such an agreement would be premature arguing that the next major meeting in December of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change will be the appropriate venue for such a commitment.

Aussie Prime Minister, John Howard disagrees and has described the APEC meeting as one of the most important gatherings of world leaders to discuss climate change since the 1992 earth summit in Rio deย Janeiro.

Until recently PM John Howard has been a global warming โ€œskepticโ€ and has been accused of delaying action on reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Australia. Howard was in power when Australia refused t ratify the Kyotoย Protocol.

With the opposition parties making political hay over Howard’s inaction on global warming and a national election in Australia most likely to occur in late 2007, no doubt Howard is attempting to re-position himself as a climateย crusader.

Unfortunately for Howard, his attempt at new flashy green credentials is probably tooย late.

And unfortunately, for the world’s climate and the millions of people affected, the most likely outcome of the APEC meeting will be more hot air with a big helping of further delay.

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Kevin is a contributor and strategic adviser to DeSmog. He runs the digital marketing agency Spake Media House. Named a โ€œGreen Heroโ€ by Rolling Stone Magazine and one of the โ€œTop 50 Tweetersโ€ on climate change and environment issues, Kevin has appeared in major news media outlets around the world for his work on digital campaigning. Kevin has been involved in the public policy arena in both the United States and Canada for more than a decade. For five years he was the managing editor of DeSmogBlog.com. In this role, Kevinโ€™s research into the โ€œclimate denial industryโ€ and the right-wing think tank networks was featured in news media articles around the world. He is most well known for his ground-breaking research into David and Charles Kochโ€™s massive financial investments in the Republican and tea partyย networks. Kevin is the first person to be designated a โ€œCertified Expertโ€ on theย political and community organizing platformย NationBuilder. Prior to DeSmog, Kevin worked in various political and government roles. He was Senior Advisor to the Minister of State for Multiculturalism and a Special Assistant to the Minister of State for Asia Pacific, Foreign Affairs for the Government of Canada. Kevin also worked in various roles in the British Columbia provincial government in the Office of the Premier and the Ministry of Health. In 2008 Kevin co-founded a groundbreaking new online election tool called Vote for Environment which was later nominated for a World Summit Award in recognition of the worldโ€™s best e-Content and innovative ICTย applications. Kevin moved to Washington, DC in 2010 where he worked for two years as the Director of Online Strategy for Greenpeace USA and has since returned to his hometown of Vancouver, Canada.

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