Australia should make deeper greenhouse cuts - adviser

Australia's top climate change adviser urged the government to make deeper-than-planned cuts in greenhouse emissions, to set an example for developing nations on the need to fight global warming.

Professor Ross Garnaut, who is advising the government on how to curb carbon pollution without harming the economy, said yesterday Australia needed to go further than its plan to slash emissions by 60 percent of 2000 levels by 2050.

But Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said the government stood by its current target, which was promised ahead of its victory at last year's national election.

"The government's commitment is the one we made prior to the election. That is the approach the government will take," Mr Wong told reporters.

Australia, the world's driest inhabited continent, is the world's largest coal exporter with an economy which relies heavily on polluting fossil fuel, with about 80 per cent of its electricity coming from coal-fired power stations.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd ratified the Kyoto Protocol on climate change last December in his first act after being sworn in, leaving the US isolated as the only developed nation not to sign up to the pact.

The former conservative government refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, which sets binding targets on carbon emissions for developed countries, saying the move would unfairly hurt Australia's economy due to its heavy reliance on fossil fuel.

Mr Garnaut said it was crucial that global measures to curb greenhouse gas emissions, blamed for global warming, do not hurt economic growth, particularly in the booming economies of China and India and other developing nations.

"Let's not kid ourselves. There's no solution to the climate change problem that is based on asking people to diminish their ambitions for high material standards of living," Mr Garnaut told reporters.

Australia, he said, should set a good example and adopt targets similar to the European Union, which has committed to cut emissions by 60 to 80 per cent by 2050, and California, which has legislated to cut emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.

Mr Garnaut also encouraged the government to develop agreements with other regional nations on ways to cut pollution, with a focus on slowing deforestation in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

Australia produced about 1.2 per cent of global carbon emissions in 2004. Mr Rudd's government has promised to introduce carbon trading by 2010, which will provide a financial incentive for polluting industries to cut emissions.