The Australian
By: Lenore Taylor, national correspondent
The German Environment Ministry and climate experts have questioned whether emission reduction targets for Australia proposed by Ross Garnaut will be viewed as credible in international negotiations on climate change.
Professor Garnaut has said that while a global deal to stabilise the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at 450 parts per million is desirable, a less ambitious goal of 550ppm is likely to be more feasible.
Asked about that conclusion, a spokesman for the German Environment Ministry told The Australian: "The German Government considers it necessary and feasible to limit global warming to 2C ... This implies that we need to stabilise the concentration of greenhouse gases at about 450ppm equivalent, with developed countries collectively reducing their greenhouse gas emissions by 25-40 per cent by 2020, compared to 1990 levels.''
Australian climate experts have questioned Professor Garnaut's calculations of the emission reduction targets for Australia to reach a fair share under each global deal. In recommendations that could form the blueprint for the Rudd Government's emissions trading plans, Professor Garnaut has proposed that Australia agree to cut its emissions by 25 per cent by 2020 under an ambitious 450ppm deal and by 10 per cent under a 550ppm deal.
But he based his calculations of Australia's contribution on a global agreement that would seek to equalise per capita emissions by 2050, meaning that countries like Australia with strong population growth had relatively lower burdens.
By Professor Garnaut's calculations, Japan would have to cutits emissions by 37 per cent under an ambitious deal and 22 per cent under a more conservative agreement.
The chief executive of the Australian Industry Greenhouse Network, Mike Hitchins, said there was "no evidence that the Garnaut methodology will go anywhere ... I do not believe this is how it will ultimately be done''.
And Climate Institute chief executive John Connor predicted global negotiations would also take into account a country's "historic responsibility for emissions and its capacity to pay'' and that a 25 per cent cut was the ``absolute minimum'' Australia should offer.
It is understood the Treasury modelling for the Government calculates the Australian target using several methods of dividing emission cuts between nations.
The Australian Government has been trying to change the lists of countries considered "developed'' and therefore subject to tougher binding emission reductions under global climate change talks.
The list includes the Ukraine, but not far wealthier countries such as Saudi Arabia, Singapore and China.
Global negotiations over emissions will continue at the next UN Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland, in December. But the treaty succeeding the Kyoto Protocol is not expected to be finalised until next year's UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, also in December.
Meanwhile, the coal industry is concerned about a recommendation, buried in Professor Garnaut's report, to more than double the levy on coal producers to boost funding on research into clean coal technologies.
The industry is already collecting $1 billion over 10 years from 2006 to fund demonstration projects for the carbon capture and underground storage technology that strips emissions from coal-fired power stations. But Professor Garnaut said this amount was relatively low, and the industry should contribute about $2.5 billion over the next decade.
Australian Coal Association executive director Ralph Hillman said: "The coal industry is already making a fair and reasonable contribution.''