WWF-Australia today warned Australia’s multi-billion dollar feral animal and invasive weed problem was set to escalate dramatically in areas where warming temperatures favoured exotic plants and animals, such as in Australia’s alpine region.

"Warming temperatures mean feral animals will be able to reach higher altitudes in the alps, for example, which would threaten fragile alpine species already suffering from reduced snow cover," said WWF’s Invasive Species Policy Officer Julie Kirkwood.

"Exotic species that haven't been invasive in these areas before are likely to have a sudden competitive advantage in warmer temperatures," she said.

The Garnaut Climate Change Review Draft Report states that warmer temperatures will favour pest and weed species at the expense of our native plants and animals, and will ultimately add to the high cost of invasive species to the Australian economy that is already in excess of $4 billion.

The Garnaut report recognises that existing environmental stress factors such as invasive species need to be dealt with now to reduce the costs of climate change, and recommends the removal of introduced pest species as a key action to building this resilience.

Rodents, pigs, cane toads, dogs, cats and rapacious exotic plant species such as lantana and gamba grass have caused numerous extinctions in Australia over the last 200 years and continue to devastate Australia's ecosystems.

"The Australian Commonwealth must fully fund plans to address the threat of rodents on islands, for example, and ensure the national Weed Spread Prevention Plan is fully implemented," Ms Kirkwood said.

WWF is also calling on the Australian Government to close existing loopholes in quarantine laws that allow the importation of potentially devastating species, such as the savannah cat, which is a cross between a domestic cat and an African serval.

An existing loophole means if the animal can be demonstrated to be at least five generations removed from their wild constituent species, they are treated as domestic cats and can be lawfully imported under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act without a permit.

For more information:

Charlie Stevens, WWF-Australia Press Office,
02 8202 1242, 0407 204 594

Julie Kirkwood, WWF-Australia Invasive Species Policy Officer,
0417 121 430

The report released today by independent consultancy Ecofys, commissioned by leading environmental organisation WWF and international financial services leader, Allianz, contains climate change scorecards for the world's leading economies. The report ranks each country's performance on a range of emissions-related criteria such as energy efficiency, renewable energy, and the development of carbon markets.

"Australia's overall poor result is embarrassing, and highlights the Government has some tough decisions ahead of it if it wants to raise Australia's overall climate change performance," said WWFAustralia CEO Greg Bourne.

"It is crucial that Australia forges ahead with a comprehensive emissions trading scheme, which begins in 2010, includes petrol and refrains from giving away free permits.

"As a wealthy high emitting nation, Australia should be joining Europe and leading the charge on actions to reduce emissions not waiting to see what poorer countries do."

Terry Towell, Managing Director of Allianz Australia, said the insurance industry has already started adapting to the effects of climate change on extreme weather events.

"For insurers, the effects of climate change have been apparent for some time - 85% of the largest 40 natural catastrophes occurred between 1988 and 2006. Moreover, average insured losses have increased tenfold from an average of around $US3 billion per annum in the early 1970s to an average of around $US30 billion per annum since 2000.

"Allianz research estimates that global insured damage from such events will rise further to an average of $US41 billion per annum over the period 2010-19.

"There is an urgent need for a new global agreement to establish a framework of international emissions reductions post the current Kyoto targets if we are to stop these trends worsening."

The international community has 10 to 15 years in which global emissions have to peak and decline, and a binding global emissions reduction pact is urgently required to replace the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012.

Download

Climate Scorecard: Australia

For more information

Charlie Stevens, WWF Press Office,
02 8202 1242, 0407 204 594

Nicholas Scofield, Allianz Australia,
02 9390 6596, 0416 088 414

For more information

Charlie Stevens, WWF-Australia Press Office,
02 8202 1274, 0424 649 689

Paul Toni, Program Leader – Development and Sustainability,
0410 086 986 or

Nicole Ikenberg, Policy Manager – Climate Change,
0400 324 107

"Existing power stations have known for 20 years that carbon would be regulated. Every cent spent on providing assistance to existing power stations is money not spent on supporting clean energy research, households and trade exposed industries," said WWF-Australia CEO Greg Bourne.

WWF also said the amount of assistance to aluminium, agriculture and other trade-exposed industries should be capped at a maximum of 30 per cent of auction revenue.

WWF said the deployment and commercialisation carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology would provide indirect assistance to generators. However WWF supports structural adjustment assistance to strongly affected communities and workers.

WWF welcomed the inclusion of the transport sector in the Emissions Trading Scheme but warned against cutting the excise on petrol to protect motorists, saying such a cut should be a one-off event only.

"In today's world of high financial pressures and rising costs of living, a one-off excise cut might be justified but it is very important that price mechanisms are not interfered with further down the track because this will reduce the incentive to invest in clean transport alternatives," he said.

Mr Bourne also said an ETS charge on petrol should be included on fuel receipts so consumers can see the direct effects of a carbon charge and make appropriate decisions about how much fuel they are using.

"Our economy is strong so the responsible thing to do is act now while it is affordable. Any delay will result in irreversible damage to the environment and future economy."

A two to three degree rise in average temperatures could result in a 33 per cent loss in species, 95 per cent loss of most coral reefs, including the Great Barrier Reef, and up to an 80 per cent loss of the Kakadu wetlands. In addition, flows in the Murray-Darling could be cut by half, and alpine areas could lose up to a staggering 85 per cent of snow-cover.

"This is not a choice between rushing an emissions trading scheme or and not rushing - this is now a matter of catching up. The time for taking this slowly was 10 years ago," said WWF-Australia CEO Greg Bourne.

For more information

Charlie Stevens, WWF-Australia Press Office,
02 8202 1274, 0424 649 689

Paul Toni, Program Leader – Development and Sustainability,
0410 086 986

"Confirming the results of last year's summit in Heiligendamm is hardly a remarkable outcome", said Kim Carstensen, Director WWF Global Climate Initiative. "So little progress after a whole year of Minister meetings and negotiations is not only a wasted opportunity, it falls dangerously short of what is needed to protect people and nature from climate change."

The global conservation organization reminded G8 leaders that the science clearly outlines an urgent need to cut global emissions way more than 50% by 2050 to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. To get there, global emissions have to peak and decline in 10 to 15 years and rich nations must reduce emissions by 25 to 40% by 2020. These crucially important necessities are not reflected in the G8 communiqué.

"The G8 are responsible for 62% of the carbon dioxide accumulated in the Earth's atmosphere, which makes them the main culprit of climate change and the biggest part of the problem", added Carstensen. "WWF finds it pathetic that they still duck their historic responsibility and refuse to turn from the main driver of the problem into the main driver of the solution."

WWF said the summit confirmed a recent trend that industrialized countries show less rather than more of the leadership so urgently needed. Toyako saw countries like Canada, Japan and the US emphasizing their inability to move, while emerging economies have recently made concrete policy proposals, offering more domestic action in turn for decisive leadership by industrialized nations.

The Japanese G8 Presidency was a disappointing example of huge discrepancies between raising high hopes and delivering little. To get over the bitter aftertaste, WWF urged the Japanese government to set a domestic emission reduction target in the range of 25 to 40 per cent by 2020 and to implement an emission trading scheme to get growing emissions under control.

"Prime Minister Fukuda made a huge effort and ended up with a mediocre result, which is the opposite of effective leadership and cannot be counted as success", said Naoyuki Yamagishi, Head of the Climate Programme at WWF Japan. "Rapid improvements at the domestic policy front are his only chance to restore trust in his ability to protect Japan from dangerous climate change."

More information

Press contacts:

Mr Christian Teriete (in Hokkaido), WWF International Communications Manager Asia Pacific
+852-9310-6805, cteriete@wwf.org.hk

Mr Martin Hiller (in Switzerland), Communications Manager WWF Global Climate Initiative
+41-22-364-9226, mhiller@wwfint.org

Spokespeople in Hokkaido

Mr Kim Carstensen, Director WWF Global Climate Initiative, +45-40-34-36-35, k.carstensen@wwf.dk

Ms Kathrin Gutmann, WWF International Climate Policy Coordinator
+49-162-29144-28, kathrin.gutmann@wwf.de

Mr Naoyuki Yamagishi, Head of WWF Japan Climate Programme
+81-90-6471-1432, yamagishi@wwf.or.jp

Ms Masako Konishi, Senior Climate Policy Adviser WWF Japan
+81-80-3024-2536, konishi@wwf.or.jp

Download

Materials for free download at: www.panda.org/climate

• WWF G8 Scorecards report, a ranking of the climate performance of G8 countries
• Report Nippon Changes on climate impacts affecting Japan today and tomorrow
• Dangerous Change brochure on climate impacts on and Climate Witnesses from Japan
• WWF International G8 Position Paper

Download WWF footage from: http://www.videonewsmanager.com/Default.aspx?i=2583&p=search

"The Major Economies Meeting has been a Major Embarrassment Meeting for G8 leaders who were coming to the table with too little while demanding too much from the developing countries", said Kim Carstensen, Director WWF Global Climate Initiative. "The G8 are trying to fool the world in selling yesterday's climate deal as progress. The ball remains in the G8 court and countries like India and China are rightly insisting on rich nations to set ambitious targets."

The global conservation organisation welcomes the forward-leading interventions made by G5 countries in Sapporo yesterday, where Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa offered more domestic climate action. In turn they called on industrialized nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80 to 95% by 2050, insisting that mid-term targets in the range of 25 to 40% by 2020 are necessary to trigger the energy revolution needed for reaching the long-term goal.

"While some rich nations get lost in tactics and seem to forget that the survival of people and nature crucially depends on their leadership, the developing world understands the magnitude of the threat and shows a strong will to act", said Kim Carstensen. "Yesterday's G5 announcement confirms the promising policy proposals made individually by these countries over recent weeks and months. Basically it's an outstretched arm the industrialized countries cannot afford to ignore any longer."

Despite little progress being made in Toyako, WWF urges the developing countries to keep up the helpful spirit and stick to their pro-active approach. UNFCCC meetings in Accra and Poznan later this year will have to accelerate the negotiations, while WWF calls for the MEM process to end. It has proven to be a complete waste of time, confusing rather than boosting the G8 process and the UNFCCC negotiations for a new climate treaty.

"The MEM process was made up by the US administration to distract public attention from the fact that President Bush's climate politics suffer a disastrous lack of ambition", added Carstensen. "Pointing the finger at emerging economies and blaming them for rising emissions won't lead anywhere and is a shameless attempt to cloud the fact that a huge share of historic emissions is US-made and that US per capita emissions are among the highest in the world. MEM must end."

More information

Press contacts:

Mr Christian Teriete (in Hokkaido), WWF International Communications Manager Asia Pacific
+852-9310-6805, cteriete@wwf.org.hk

Mr Martin Hiller (in Switzerland), Communications Manager WWF Global Climate Initiative
+41-22-364-9226, mhiller@wwfint.org

Spokespeople in Hokkaido

Mr Kim Carstensen, Director WWF Global Climate Initiative, +45-40-34-36-35, k.carstensen@wwf.dk

Ms Kathrin Gutmann, WWF International Climate Policy Coordinator
+49-162-29144-28, kathrin.gutmann@wwf.de

Mr Naoyuki Yamagishi, Head of WWF Japan Climate Programme
+81-90-6471-1432, yamagishi@wwf.or.jp

Ms Masako Konishi, Senior Climate Policy Adviser WWF Japan
+81-80-3024-2536, konishi@wwf.or.jp

Download

Materials for free download at: www.panda.org/climate

• WWF G8 Scorecards report, a ranking of the climate performance of G8 countries
• Report Nippon Changes on climate impacts affecting Japan today and tomorrow
• Dangerous Change brochure on climate impacts on and Climate Witnesses from Japan
• WWF International G8 Position Paper

Download WWF footage from: http://www.videonewsmanager.com/Default.aspx?i=2583&p=search

The leading conservation organisation made the call following today's announcement at the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium in Florida that the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) is a world leader in management of coral reef ecosystems.

The praise of the Great Barrier Reef's management has come at a time when the scourge of climate change is posing a serious worldwide threat to valuable coral reefs.

A paper presented to the meeting claimed the authority has found a winning combination of science, policy, public outreach and flexible adaptive management that works to protect the reef from current and future threats.

"It is great to see the world's leading coral reef researchers recognise the reef has the best management in the business, however it exposes a stark contrast to the Coral Sea – Australia's second premiere coral reef site - which is virtually unprotected," said Dr Gilly Llewellyn, head of WWF-Australia's Oceans program.

"The Coral Sea deserves the highest standard of management. It is one of the last marine ecosystems on earth where you can find healthy populations of sharks, rare corals and other marine life - which are exposed to similar future threats such as unsustainable fishing and climate change."

Co-authored by Terry Hughes of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies in Australia, the publication also appears in the Proceedings of the US National Academy of Science.

The importance of GBRMPA's work was highlighted by new science revealing corals are succumbing to climate change and ocean acidification more rapidly than previously believed.

In a presentation on the opening day of the conference, Professor Malcolm McCulloch of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies said climate change-driven ocean acidification posed a severe threat to a range of coral reef creatures, including the calcareous algae that bind coral reefs together.

"Last month we learned how climate change is affecting the food-web of Southern Ocean whales, now we see how climate change is dissolving the bricks and mortar of coral reefs. The pace of these changes is frightening," said Dr Gilly Llewellyn said.

"Governments need to urgently make deep emissions cuts to give our ocean ecosystems the best possible chance to adapt to climate change."

For more information

Rachael Hoy, WWF Press Office
02 8202 1242, 0407 204 594

Julian Murphy, WWF Press Office
07 3211 2019, 0418 970 778

* 11th International Coral Reef Symposium Media Center: http://www.nova.edu/ncri/11icrs/media_newsroom.html

The conservation organisation today welcomed Professor Garnaut's report on Climate Change and applauded the Rudd Government for pushing ahead in the fight against global warming.

"The report's proposed economic reforms are the most important for 20 years and it is essential all of our leaders work together to tackle climate change," WWF CEO Greg Bourne said.

"Australia's response to this enormous challenge is at a critical juncture, and we cannot afford to have the Opposition undermine the emissions trading scheme for its own political ends.

"Our economy is strong so the responsible thing to do is act now while it is affordable. Any delay will result in irreversible damage to the environment and future economy."

WWF believes the Garnaut report got it right on key factors, such as the auctioning of pollution permits, including transport in an emissions trading scheme and a massive increase in funding for research and development and commercialisation of new low emission technologies including carbon capture and storage.

"Auctioning all permits is the only fair and transparent way to allocate carbon credits," Mr Bourne said. "Giving away free permits would shift the cost to families and small business.

"The public should not be expected to pay for unwise business decisions by electricity generators and other big polluters who have known they needed to act for nearly 20 years."

To ensure the integrity of the emissions trading scheme it must include petrol as 14 per cent of national emissions come from the transport industry.

"We're better off softening the impact by compensating low income earners and business through money raised from the emissions trading scheme," Mr Bourne said.

The increased cost of including petrol will be 4-8 cents a litre on bowser price, but leaving it out will increase costs elsewhere in the economy and the hip pocket.

"WWF believes we must give consumers the choice on where to spend their money while encouraging a shift towards low emission transport alternatives."

For more information

Charles Stevens, WWF-Australia Press Office
02 8202 1274, 0424 649 689

Paul Toni, Program Leader - Development and Sustainability
0410 086 986

The conservation organisation said money proposed for compensation of electricity generators and other big polluters would be better spent on improving household, commercial and industrial energy efficiency, which would cut carbon emissions and reduce energy costs for the consumer.

As the Council of Australian Governments tomorrow considers the way forward under an ETS, WWF is calling for a fair and transparent scheme that auctions all pollution permits.

"Auctioning all permits is the only fair and transparent way to allocate carbon credits under the scheme," WWF-Australia CEO Greg Bourne said today.

"Prudent businesses will have long factored an emissions trading scheme into their business decisions. Some businesses may have exercised poor judgment or deliberately accepted risk for short term profit and not factored a carbon price into their business costs. The Australian public should not now be expected to pay for unwise business decisions."

Electricity generators and other big polluters are attempting to get favourable treatment under Australia's ETS in the form of free permits or compensation despite knowing for nearly 20 years that greenhouse gas pollution would need to be dramatically reduced.

"We're seeing a lot of scare-mongering by electricity generators about disruptions to electricity supplies if heavily polluting coal-fired power stations are made commercially unviable under a scheme to address climate change," said Mr Bourne.

"The lights are not about to go out under an emissions trading scheme. The worst that will happen is that some of the big polluters will have to sell the power stations to new owners to clear their debts and the new owners will run the power stations instead. No one is going to shut a fully functioning, fully built power station."

"But even this is not likely as all economic studies have shown that the Australian economy will continue to grow strongly as long as action is taken to address climate change."

WWF today reminded political leaders attending the COAG meeting of the costs of inaction and of the strong link between environmental impacts and economic impacts. Some of these costs (at about a 3oC temperature rise) include:

• Destruction of Great Barrier Reef (and therefore the loss of $6 billion per year tourism industry employing about 50,000 people);
• At least 40% decrease in cattle and sheep carrying capacity;
• 100% increase in number of people exposed to flooding in Australia;
• 1,200-1,400 more heat-related deaths a year;
• 7-35% decrease in Melbourne's water supply;
• Up to 25% decrease in rivers flows in Murray Darling Basin (Allens Consulting (2005) - a 15% reduction in MDB flow would translate to a loss of $750 million in 2009-2010);
• Peak electricity demand in Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne increases 5%-20%, leading to need for additional electricity infrastructure and higher electricity bills;
• 5%-10% increase in tropical cyclone wind speeds - leading to higher insurance costs (if cover available);
• 20%-30% increase in tropical cyclone rainfall - leading to higher insurance costs (if cover available);
• About 15% increase in 100 year storm tides along eastern Victorian coast - leading to higher insurance costs (if cover available);
• Millions of people displaced from low lying river deltas in Asia;

(all taken from CSIRO The Heat Is One (2006))

• 20% more droughts in Australia by 2030;

(Australian Climate Group Climate Change Solutions for Australia (2008))

"The introduction of an emissions trading scheme is the biggest economic reform in last 20 years since those undertaken by the Hawke-Keating Government, and the Rudd Government is to be congratulated for pressing ahead.

"The Hawke-Keating reforms involved short-term pain for a long-term healthy economy. We are going through the same process now and the Australian public deserves bipartisan support for such an important scheme," said Mr Bourne.

Time line of events providing notice of an emissions trading scheme

By 2010 when the scheme is proposed to commence, generators will have been on notice for nearly twenty years that Governments would need to implement some form of carbon pricing. There have been numerous signals.

• In 1990, the international climate change negotiations commenced, with Australia playing an active and prominent role (including ongoing consultation with industry on Australia's position).
• In 1992, Australia signed (with bipartisan support) the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which both committed the country to limit its emissions and foreshadowed the use of economic instruments.
• In 1994, the Commonwealth Government proposed a small levy on greenhouse emissions, which was withdrawn to give industry more time for adjustment and to trial voluntary approaches.
• In 1997, the Kyoto Protocol was agreed with Australia strongly supporting the inclusion of emissions trading as a key mechanism.
• During 1999, the Commonwealth Government released four discussion papers on the development of a national greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme.
• In 2002, the Commonwealth Government signaled that companies taking early action to reduce emissions would not be disadvantaged in a future emissions trading scheme (the so called "no disadvantage" principle).
• During 2002-03, the Commonwealth Government conducted a dialogue on climate change with generators and other major business interests that included a major focus on carbon pricing options.
• In 1996, NSW adopted greenhouse benchmarks for the electricity industry which from 2003 became the mandatory Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme.
• In 2004, the State and Territory leaders established the National Emissions Trading Taskforce.
• In 2006, Prime Minister Howard established a government-business Emissions Trading Task Group.

Generators that have developed or acquired carbon-intensive assets since 1990 have done so in the knowledge that governments would need to implement some form of carbon pricing within the lifetime of those assets.

For more information

Charlie Stevens, WWF-Australia Press Office
02 8202 1274, 0424 649 689

Paul Toni, Program Leader - Development & Sustainability
0410 086 986

Ice breaker: Pushing the boundaries for whales, released just ahead of the opening of a crucial International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting, summarises WWF research showing that levels of global warming predicted over the next 40 years will lead to winter sea-ice coverage of the Southern Ocean declining by up to 30 per cent in some key areas.

"Essentially, what we are seeing is that ice-associated whales such as the Antarctic minke whale will face dramatic changes to their habitat over little more than the lifespan of an individual whale," said Dr Susan Lieberman, Director of WWF International's Species Programme and head of the WWF delegation to the IWC meeting.

Migratory whales meanwhile may need to travel 200-500 kilometres further south to find the "frontal" zones which are their crucial foraging areas. Migratory whale species which will be affected include the Blue Whale, earth's largest living creature, and the humpback whales which are only now coming back from the brink of extinction after populations were decimated by commercial whaling, mainly during the first half of the 20th century.

Both species build up the reserves that sustain them throughout the year in the frontal zones, which host large populations of their primary food source - krill.

"As frontal zones move southward, they also move closer together, reducing the overall area of foraging habitat available," the research notes. As the krill is dependent on sea ice, less sea ice is also expected to reduce the abundance of food for whales in the feeding areas.

"The impact on whales is one more imperative for the world to take decisive action to reduce the risk of catastrophic climate change," Dr Lieberman said. "However, the IWC must also take the opportunity of this southern hemisphere meeting to look at every possible way to increase the resilience of whale populations to climate change.

"For Antarctica's whales, the best way to do this would be to reduce all other threats - such as the unregulated and unjustified so-called 'scientific whaling' of these species conducted by Japan." WWF is recommending the protection of critical habitats and for also limiting other non-climate stresses to whale populations such as fishing, pollution and ocean noise.

Notes

• The IWC will hold its 60th annual meeting in Santiago, Chile from 23-27 June. This is the first time the IWC has met in South America in almost a quarter century.
• Ice breaker: Pushing the boundaries for whales summarises research commissioned by WWF from scientists Dr. Cynthia Tynan and Dr. Joellen Russell which was presented to the IWC Scientific Committee in the following paper: Tynan, C. T. and Russell, J.L. 2008. Assessing the impacts of future 2°C global warming on Southern Ocean cetaceans. International Whaling Commission, Scientific Committee document SC/60/E3.
• Current projections have 2°C of average global warming over pre-industrial levels - widely regarded as a threshold level for unacceptable risks of runaway climate change - arriving on average in 2042, with impacts going furthest and fastest in polar regions.
• Warming of 2°C will reduce winter sea-ice coverage by 10-15 per cent overall and up to 30 percent in some key areas.
• Shrinking ice covered areas affect krill production in two ways - sea ice is a refuge for krill larvae in winter, and an area of intense algal blooms in summer on which the krill feed. Krill is so fundamental to the Southern Ocean ecosystem that the impacts will not be confined to whales but also to seals, seabirds and penguins, and to fisheries productivity.
• "Frontal zones" are where water masses of different temperatures meet. They are associated with upwelling of nutrients supporting large plankton populations on which species such as Antarctic krill feed.

For further information:

Dr Susan Lieberman, Director, Species Programme, WWF-International, IWC Head of Delegation, Chile cell phone (16 - 28 June) +56 9 88344856, slieberman@wwfint.org,

Wendy Elliott, Species Programme, WWF-International, English/some French, Chile cell phone +56 9 77041514, welliott@wwfint.org

Download

Mean global temperature could reach 2°C above pre- industrial levels by 2042, leading to significant impacts on Southern Ocean whales. According to state-of-the-art climate models, under 2°C global warming, the area of the Southern Ocean covered by sea ice is projected to shrink by an average of 10-15%. This reduction could be up to 30% in some regions, meaning that species that are heavily dependent on sea ice, such as the Antarctic minke whale (Balaenoptera bonaerensis) are projected to lose between 5-30% of ice-associated habitat within 40 years - little more than the life time of an individual whale.

Download (PDF 3.76 MB)