Date: Tue, 23 Sep 1997 01:02:04 -0500
From: Michael Novick <mnovick-AT-laedu.lalc.k12.ca.us>
Subject: AUT: Australia puts right to pollute over survival of small Pacific


07:08 AM ET 09/20/97

Australia in hot water in Pacific greenhouse row

	 
	(Updates with more detail, quotes)
	    By Terry Friel
	    RAROTONGA, Cook Islands, Sept 19 (Reuter) - Australian
leader John Howard came to this idyllic tropical island to patch
up relations with the Pacific, but left on Friday after sending
them to a new low and splitting the region's key political club.
	    Pacific leaders were outraged that Howard put Australian
interests ahead of their fate in forcing them to sign on to his
stand against binding uniform cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
	    The 16-member South Pacific Forum's small island nations --
which fear being submerged by rising seas -- had pleaded with
Howard at the forum's annual summit to abandon his tough stand
ahead of a world climate change conference in the Japanese city
of Kyoto in December.
	    But Howard refused and Australian officials had said he
would boycott the normally uncontroversial forum communiqui if
forced into a corner, in a battle that pitted the dominant South
Pacific power against some of the tiniest nations on earth.
	    In one of the forum's worst divisions in recent years,
officials said leaders agreed for the sake of unity to endorse
the Australian prime minister's plan, which notes concerns over
the impact of the greenhouse effect and urges international
action but shuns uniform compulsory targets for reductions.
	    ``It was just a win by John Howard against 15 nations,''
said Tuvalu Prime Minister Bikenibeu Paeniu, whose tiny,
low-lying nation would be swamped by rising sea levels.
	    ``Being small, we depend on them so much, we had to give in
to what they wanted. From Australia, there was no compromise, it
was just 'no, no, no, no'. All of us were solid, united.''
	    Howard said the outcome from the three-day summit which
ended on Friday protected Australia's interests while
recognising the fears of island nations.
	    ``It's a fair outcome. It's a very good outcome for
Australia,'' he told reporters.
	    Canberra, which relies heavily on energy exports, has warned
tough, binding targets would throw thousands of Australians out
of work and shave billions from the national economy.
	    ``My responsibility at the end of the day, always above
everything else, is to protect Australian interests.''
	    ``I go into these things to try to get an outcome first of
all that's good for my country and for employees in my
country.''
	    Howard was forced to attend the summit in a bid to repair
relations with the region, damaged by publication of a leaked
secret paper scathingly critical of some Pacific economies and
labelling some leaders and key figures as corrupt or incompetent
and detailing their personal habits in lurid detail.
	    The Australian leader, dogged by resignation rumours, said
he felt fit and happy in the job after his arrival.
	    But he looked drawn and uneasy, appearing uncomfortable at
the relaxed and casual Polynesian-style social evenings and
often standing alone, rarely chatting with his counterparts in
public.
	    Small island nations such as Tuvalu had wanted forum
endorsement of their call for tough and binding cuts in
emissions in what they said was a matter of survival.
	    ``They spoke very passionately about their love for their
home and their concern at the threat that rising sea levels will
cause, and at times I can tell you the discussions got quite
warm,'' forum host and Cook Islands Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey
Henry said.
	    New Zealand Prime Minister Jim Bolger said it was one of the
most difficult issues the forum had ever tackled.
	    ``If you are a small, low-lying island state...and you have
a leeway of one or two metres (feet), then the intensity of your
emotions is totally understandable, totally understandable,'' he
told reporters.
	    In its final communiqui, the forum also reaffirmed
traditional commitments to trade liberalisation, increased
economic cooperation and fiscal reforms, more open government,
and repeated its concerns over nuclear waste shipments.
	    It also endorsed Fiji's readmission to the Commonwealth and
backed Papua New Guinea's efforts to negotiate a peaceful end to
the long-running rebellion on Bougainville island.
	    The forum groups Australia, the Cook Islands, the Federated
States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands,
Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the
Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
 ^REUTER-AT-


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is
distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and
educational purposes only.

Be PART of the solution -- People Against Racist Terror/ 
PO Box 1055/Culver City CA 90232-1055/310-288-5003/ 
Order our journal "Turning the Tide." mnovickttt-AT-igc.org

Free Mumia Abu Jamal! Free All POW's and Political Prisoners! Abolish the
Racist Death Penalty!



     --- from list aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---