Real action needed on climate change

In Australia we have just survived the hottest year on record.

However the Liberal government still can't bring itself to take real action to address climate change.

This week in Sydney, the Government is hosting a sham summit on climate change with five of the world's biggest polluting countries.

The meeting in Sydney this week is for the "Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate", a US-led initiative that is supposed to "complement" the Kyoto Protocol.

This partnership places no real obligations on the partners and is simply a way of evading the serious efforts already underway in the international community to address climate change.

It is the public policy equivalent of cowering in an air-conditioned room on a hot day waiting for the sun to go down.

We cannot let the Australian and US Governments shirk their responsibility for tackling climate change.

The Australian government should re-engage with the international community's efforts to tackle climate change, rather than host meaningless talkfests.

A commitment to real targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions must be implemented with an unprecedented investment in clean energy technology.

Mike Hudson, Umina Beach