“The Joint Party room should be told how much it will cost Australia to finance climate change policy in developing countries,” said The Nationals’ Senator Ron Boswell today. “As highlighted by the Prime Minister, Australia is to contribute to the massive financing required to bring developing countries on board in a global emissions agreement. The recent World Bank World Development 2010 Report estimated the annual costs to be $US475 billion.” “We need to know before a decision is made on the ETS at home exactly how much it is going to cost us abroad.” “I have previously pursued the government for details on what we will pay to overseas countries but there has been no quantitative answer.” “Australians should be aware that the ETS at home is going to costs billions but that is only the first stage. The second stage is developed countries like Australia paying for climate change response in developing countries.” “The draft treaty is alarming many people because of its repeated references to the transfer of money from the developed to the developing world. Obviously there is a price we will have to pay to get developing countries to sign up to a global treaty on climate change.” “But what will that cost be? That is one of the most important unanswered questions in this whole debate.” Senator Boswell said that the government must come clean and tell Australians the sums of money involved. “How many billions will Australians have to pay, whether in public or private financing measures?” “Several taxes have been proposed to help raise the massive funds required including taxes on shipping and international aviation. Australia would be hurt more than other countries as we rely on trade with far distant countries.” “Other suggested methods of climate finance aid include an internationally coordinated carbon tax and earmarking a proportion of domestic auction revenues.” “The Joint Party room needs to hear answers on our international commitment to inform decision making on amendments and the CPRS bills.” “Given Mr Turnbull’s statement today that there will be no treaty signed in Copenhagen, there is time to have a full and frank discussion of how much Australia should contribute prior to going ahead with the legislation.” “Until we know what the international context is, we cannot determine the impact on Australia and we should not consider legislating until we do.” ENDS

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