MEDIA RELEASE

MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS
ALEXANDER DOWNER

FA113

25 August 1998

Forum Countries Cooperating On Climate Change

I am pleased to announce that Australia will be sponsoring a workshop in the South Pacific to explore how international collaborative projects to reduce omissions can most effectively be implemented. The workshop will be jointly sponsored by Australia's International Greenhouse Partnerships (IGP) Program and the Australian Agency for International Development, AusAID. The IGP Program falls within the portfolio responsibilities of Senator Wirwick Parer, Minister for Resources and Energy.

The workshop will build upon outcomes of climate change negotiations which were agreed in Kyoto last November.

The Kyoto Protocol includes establishment of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under which industrialised and developing countries undertake projects collaboratively to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.

A lot remains to be agreed internationally before the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) becomes a reality and Australia is working with others, including Pacific countries to make progress on this at the Convention of Parties (COP 4) in Buenos Aires.

The Pacific workshop will provide an opportunity to explore how these new collaborative projects could be best undertaken and will provide a forum for Australia and the Pacific islands to examine particular projects that will be of mutual benefit and to the global environment

The workshop will also seek to identify what capacity building activities could be underaken in Pacific island countries to facilitate collaboration on emission reduction projects.

This provides a valuable opportunity for exploring prospects for reducing greenhouse gas emissions through investments improving energy efficiency, increasing the use of alternative and renewable energy such as solar energy, wind and tidal power, and biomass waste products.

POHNPEI

For further information: 

Ministerial: Innes Willox: + (691) 320 7145 or
Departmental: Rob Sturgiss (02) 6261 2312