12/07/07

Australian Greens climate spokesperson, Senator Christine Milne, today congratulated the National Business Leaders' Forum on Sustainable Development for their timely action to pull the climate change debate back to solutions and away from junk science journalism.

Senator Milne said "The Business Leaders' Forum have shown impeccable timing in launching their positive climate change framework today, the day the ABC is set to broadcast The Great Global Warming Swindle, undermining the junk science film's aim of dragging the climate debate away from solutions and back to the long-solved question of the science.

"Timing is of the essence with climate change, and the business leaders have demonstrated that they well understand that fact on many levels.

"The business leaders recognise that urgent, fast and strong action to reduce emissions is vital in order to prevent runaway climate change from being locked in, and is also the key to putting us on track for the even deeper cuts that we must make in the longer term. As they have said, a short term target focuses effort and galvanises the economy.

"The short term target the business leaders recommend falls not far short of the Greens policy of 30% cuts on 1990 levels by 2020. We believe that this is the minimum required by the science, and we are heartened that the forum's Ian Dunlop acknowledged that their 20% target is likely to be insufficient to prevent runaway climate change.

"The timing of the business leaders' announcement also shows that they understand there is no time to waste on countering misinformation and junk science. We should simply ignore it and re-focus on the solutions.

"Thanks to the last decade of delay, we only have a few years to act before it is too late. We cannot afford to get sucked back in to the science debate by those who think that they profit from doubt. Janet Albrechtsen, Nick Minchin and others are deliberately attempting to cast doubt on the science in order to slow down the action that they do not want to see.

"Thanks to the efforts of the Business Leaders' Forum on Sustainable Development, we can be hopeful that Swindle will not have succeeded in its aim of derailing the debate on solutions. Instead, Australians should hear their message that, once we get started, we'll be amazed what we can achieve."

For More Information:

Tim Hollo
Email: tim.hollo@aph.gov.au
Phone: 0437 587 562