Obama: Best way to reduce carbon emissions is "to put a price on it"
Yesterday, in a speech at the climate conference, Obama said the best way to drive innovation and reduce carbon emissions is to "put a price on it", which will become more evident as people realise the costs associated with climate change. He went on to explain that insurance companies are beginning to realise that in terms of how they price risk by putting a price tag on climate change damage. Obama then went on to pledge his support for small island nations which are under threat from rising sea levels, by calling for an ambitious and transparent climate agreement to help protect these nations. 

 

 

Malcolm Turnbull has been urged to show the same interest in the impact of climate change on low lying island island states as Barack Obama and to return Australia “to its former leadership role in the Pacific.”



Speaking after foreign minister Julie Bishop ridiculed a Labor claim that one of the Marshall Islands had disappeared into the sea, Marshall Island’s foreign minister Tony de Brum told Guardian Australia he was hoping Australia might soon start to take the countries’ fears about the impact of climate change as seriously as the US president did.

Obama recognised the importance and special concerns of the low lying states in a meeting on the sidelines of the Paris conference on Tuesday with leaders from Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, St Lucia, Barbados and Papua New Guinea.

Speaking after the meeting, Obama described himself as “an island boy”, referring to his childhood on Hawaii, and urged the conference to listen to their concerns.

“Their population are amongst the most vulnerable to the ravages of climate change ... Some of their nations could disappear entirely and as weather patterns change, we might deal with tens of millions of climate refugees in the Asia Pacific region,” he said.

He said Paris summit must “serve the interests of the most vulnerable” as well as the most powerful.

Bishop had mocked her Labor counterpart Tanya Plibersek in parliament on Tuesday for claiming the island of Eneko had “disappeared” due to rising sea levels when in fact it was a “beautiful and accessible beach getaway”.

“You can rent a bungalow for $50 a night. It is in good condition, we’re told. There are houses, lawns, gardens, there is a toilet block and there are picnic tables,” Bishop said.

It subsequently emerged that Plibersek’s transcript had misnamed the island, and that she had been referring to a different island, called Anebok, which had disappeared.

De Brum said Australia had in recent years “not been very supportive of our goals.”

“The meeting with Obama was one of the most significant meetings we have had in a long long time. He bolstered the idea that even though we are small we have to have a voice in these negotiations. We did not meet with Turnbull in Paris but we hope we might engage with him in the future. He an island boy as well, from a very big island.

“There is a lot of room for improvement for Australia to return to its former leadership role in the Pacific,” de Brum said.

Speaking to Guardian Australia in Paris, opposition leader accused Bill Shorten accused Bishop of having a “Peter Dutton moment” – a reference to the immigration minister’s joke – picked up on a boom mic – about rising sea levels in the Pacific.

“Her comments makes Australia look stupid. The Pacific islands see Australia as a big brother and Julie Bishop is treating their concerns as a political football,” he said.

“This was a Peter Dutton moment for Julie Bishop. She is a more sophisticated personality than Peter Dutton and she should know better than to play gotcha games with this policy.”

Shorten and Plibersek travelled to Kiribati and the Marshall Islands in October to investigate the impacts of climate change and Shorten had pictures of where Anebok had been on his mobile phone.

Leaders of neighbouring Pacific nations have long tried to put pressure on Australia and New Zealand to take a tougher stance in the international talks on climate change and to take on more ambitious domestic policies.

Obama did not change his administration’s opposition to some of their demands, including so-called “loss and damage” payments from major economies based on historical emissions and the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees instead of 2 degrees.

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd, who is also at the climate summit said the South Pacific countries had been “utterly contemptuous of the positions being adopted by the Abbott government and that was beginning to fracture Australia’s foreign policy position in the Pacific: but were now “suspending doubt” to see whether the new Australian prime minister implemented policy changes.

In the detailed negotiations in Paris Australian officials are understood to be backing some of the island states goals, including looking for a way to “reference” the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees and their particular vulnerability to climate change.