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SYDNEY - Yesterday, as Prime Minister John Howard prepared to launch a new A$70 million climate change package, Greenpeace activists slipped beside the coal carrier NSS Endeavour in Newcastle Harbour.
To protest at the four million tonnes of coal Australia would export during the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation forum's week-long series of meetings - and the 11 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions thiswould produce - they painted "Australia pushing export coal" on the ship's hull.
This was an acronym to match Apec, where Howard will push for a new commitment to measures to clean development, energy security and climate change.
Police arrested 12 of the activists and charged five with maliciousdamage.
Undeterred, Howard maintained the zeal of a born-again climate change convert.
He said that his Government would add A$50 million to the A$100 million it has already given to the Asia Pacific partnership on clean development and climate and a further AS20 million for regional forestry programmes and a new energy technology network.
Political expediency and Howard's woeful position in the polls have pushed Canberra's determination for climate to be among the highest priorities of the Apec agenda.
A study released by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resources (Abare) as senior officials began their two-day meeting yesterday detailed the benefits of pushing cleaner, more advanced and energy-efficient energy technology.
Abare warned that unless present trends changed, energy consumption in Apec economies would soar by140 per cent by 2050, causing greenhouse gas emissions to rise by about 130 per cent.
But if new technologies were adopted Apec's greenhouse gasemissions could fall by almost 50 per cent relative to what they would otherwise be.
Abare also urged action to slow deforestation.
It predicted that if present rates of forest clearing in tropical Asia were halved in the next 40 years, forestry-related emissions would fall by an estimated 70 per cent.
Backed by such evidence and supported by enthusiasm from Japan and China - which wants "pragmatic co-operation" to accompany a strong climate declaration from Apec to help contain its own efforts to lower pollution - Howard has called for the development of a "truly international" framework to realistically attack climate change.
But with serious reservations from countries such as Malaysia, which does not regard Apec as an appropriate forum, Howard has also recognised that the forum's biggest hurdle is to successfully bridge the gulf between rich nations and the developing economies that will account for most of future greenhouse gas emissions.
Pilloried by critics at home and attacked by influential Europeansfor his refusal to ratify the KyotoProtocol, Howard argues that the 1998 declaration split the world in twoand that Apec needs to help buildconsensus on a way forward that "avoids the pitfalls of the Kyoto model".
"Stark realities bring home the need for international action that addresses environmental challenges whilst also recognising the realities of energy demand and encouraging continued economic and social development," the Prime Minister said in a speech to the Lowy Institute for International Policy.
"We should not deny the developing Apec economies their aspirations," he said.
