(no subject)
Hmmm... Interesting.... And we wonder why we're running headfirst into an oil crisis....
Greens to miss out on green summit
By Wendy Frew
January 9, 2006
IT HAS been billed as one of the most important environment meetings in recent years but environment groups haven't been invited to the inaugural Asia-Pacific partnership on clean development and climate.
Big business will be there and companies such as global miner Rio Tinto and oil group ExxonMobil and will foot part of the bill for a Sydney Harbour cruise.
Environment, energy and foreign affairs ministers from Australia, the US, China, Japan, India and South Korea were invited to the two-day meeting.
Much of Wednesday will be taken up by meetings between governments and major energy providers and energy users, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
The Australian Government, which has promoted the partnership as an alternative to the Kyoto Protocol, the international agreement on cutting greenhouse gases, says the countries at the talks will be asked to fast-track technologies that will allow them to continue using large amounts of energy from fossil fuels such as coal and gas while producing less greenhouse gas emissions.
But the meeting in Sydney is not expected to put in place any mechanism to force industry to adopt the as yet commercially non-viable technologies.
Visiting chief executives from companies including Rio Tinto, Peabody Energy Corp, Portland Cement, American Electric Power and ExxonMobil, will be received at Government House on Wednesday afternoon.
It is believed the evening dinner has been sponsored by companies and business groups such as the Australian Aluminium Council, the Australian Coal Association, BP Australia, the Cement Industry Federation and the Business Council for Sustainable Energy. The Federal Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources is also a sponsor.
Environment groups Greenpeace, the Australian Conservation Foundation and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) have not been invited to any part of the meeting. "It has been one of the most secretive conferences on climate change we know of with no involvement from non-governmental organisations," said WWF's Angela Heck.
Federal Government departments contacted by The Age could not comment on why environment groups were not invited.
Cate Faehrmann, director of the Nature Conservation Council of NSW, said the meeting was "all about saving the dying and polluting coal and oil industries".
"The countries involved aren't meeting to find ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They are meeting with the CEOs of the big oil and coal companies to work out how to save their industries," she said