WWF releases 2007 progress report for a living Australia
12 Nov 2007
WWF-Australia today released the first of its progress reports on steps taken in Australia to tackle dangerous climate change and build environmental resilience.
The progress report is based on WWF-Australia's February 2007 document Priorities for a living Australia, which outlines policy initiatives that must be delivered by the next Australian Government to reduce the country's greenhouse gas emissions and better prepare the natural environment for the impacts of climate change.
Priorities for a living Australia covers a wide range of issues such as ecosystem resilience and species conservation, water management and environmental flows, coastal management, the health of marine environments, sustainable fisheries, northern Australia and Australia's overseas aid and development assistance.
Today's progress report gives specific attention to eight benchmark policies identified by WWF in July as among the most strategically important and immediate steps necessary to reduce Australia's carbon footprint and to lessen the impacts of climate change on the natural environment. The eight benchmarks cover both climate change mitigation measures and adaptation strategies.
The attached table provides the current status of commitments from the Australian Labor Party and the Coalition on each of these benchmarks.
"This analysis is intended to provide the Australian public with a progress report on the extent to which the major political parties - one of which will obviously form the next Australian Government - have committed to these measures since they were released in February 2007," said WWF-Australia's Director of Conservation, Dr Ray Nias.
"We do not intend to provide a running commentary on election issues but we do intend to set out clear markers to enable the public to make informed decisions on environmental issues of global significance," he said.
"Both parties have announced major rebate schemes, but our view is that these are expensive to administer and do not provide the large-scale, low-cost emission reductions that can be achieved through legislative change or mass-deployment programs, such as mass installation of solar hot water units."
WWF will provide a full report and regular up-dates on the extent to which this package of strategic environmental initiatives has been met.
Full progress report (124kb, PDF).
More information
Charlie Stevens, Press Officer, WWF-Australia
Phone: 02 8202 1274
Mobile: 0424 649 689
Email: cstevens@wwf.org.au
Dr Ray Nias, Director of Conservation, WWF-Australia
Phone: 02 8202 1223
Mobile: 0414 917 297
