Australia could be contributing upwards of $4 billion annually in additional overseas aid by 2013 if it took its climate change responsibilities seriously.
It would adopt emissions reduction targets of 25 - 40 per cent of 1990 levels by 2020 and it would phase out the use of coal.
Australia, as a country with one of the highest per capita carbon emission rates in the world, has serious responsibilities on the climate change world stage that call for a just, compassionate and scientifically sound response.
Such responsibility should be directed, in the first instance, towards helping the developing world participate in the climate change conversation in a meaningful manner.
These are some of the points I made in a letter to the Prime Minister.
In the letter, dated October 14, I call on the Government to take strong action to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and to support serious funding considerations.
We, in the developed world, have disproportionately used the earth's atmospheric space. As Australians specifically are among those with the highest per capita carbon emissions, we owe it to the poor of the world to radically reduce our emissions and to assist them to adapt to a new approach.
This is a matter of justice.
In a three-pronged approach to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, I urged the Government to adopt emissions reduction targets of 25 - 40 per cent of 1990 levels by 2020; to phase out the use of coal and to increase domestic financial incentives for the expansion of energy generated from renewable sources such as solar and wind.
In relation to financing the adaptation and mitigation of climate change in developing countries, I urged that funding match the needs of developing countries.
The amount contributed by each donor should be proportional to its level of responsibility for the problem. This means that Australia should vastly scale up its contributions to somewhere between A$1.7 billion to A$4.3 billion annually by 2013 - this being new and additional to overseas aid.
The funding - to be disbursed through UNFCCC mechanisms - should provide for technology transfer so that it is accessible, especially to the least developed countries, not only to countries where there is a capacity to pay.
These concrete actions would constitute a genuinely just, compassionate and scientifically sound response by the Australian Government to the challenges presented by climate change.
If we are to protect the earth's capacity to provide for the vulnerable majority and for future generations, nations like ours, must act promptly and in accordance with the science. Without such action by developed countries, the talks at Copenhagen could easily stall and not lead to an equitable global agreement.
I commended the Federal Government for its leadership and thanked it for the money, already given and pledged, to assist developing countries to adapt to climate change and to mitigate their carbon emissions.
However, I stressed that it is vital that the Government respond far more vigorously to the urgency of climate change and to the needs of people in developing countries, who are suffering the earliest impacts of climate change and who are set to suffer most from a problem which they did not create.
