Tue, Jun 24 09:06 AM
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) _ Australia must work harder to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions despite a report indicating the nation will meet its Kyoto pollution target, the climate minister said Tuesday. The government released a report Tuesday on Australia's emissions for 2006, the first official progress report since Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's new government ratified the Kyoto Protocol for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in December last year.
The 1997 treaty gave Australia a relatively easy goal of limiting its growth of carbon pollution by the year 2010 to 8 percent above 1990 emission levels. The 576 million metric tons (635 million U.S. tons) of greenhouse gases emitted by Australia in 2006 was 4.2 percent more than was emitted in 1990, the report said.
The report also contained a preliminary result for 2007. Emissions last year are expected to be 6 percent above 1990 at 585 million metric tons (645 million U.S. tons).
"While still on track to meet our Kyoto target, it's clear we have a lot of work to do when it comes to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions," Climate Change Minister Penny Wong told reporters Tuesday when releasing the report. Among Australia's challenges are a strong increase in energy use last year, with energy-related emissions increasing by 3.3 percent to 378 million metric tons (417 million U.S. tons).
"We need to change how the economy works, to remove it from a high emissions economy of the past to the low emission economy of the future," Wong said. The government will soon release a document on how it hopes to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 to 40 percent of 2000 levels.
The report found that Australia's population of 21 million is responsible for 1.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, making it one of the world's worst polluters per capita. It found that the stemming of Australia's emissions in recent years was due largely to new state laws that have reduced the rate of land clearing.
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