Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said today, collaboration and partnership are key to tackling climate change, which is a fundamental threat to humanity.
“There is a need for collaboration unprecedented in human history,” Rudd told reporters in New Delhi today. “There is a group of people who deny the science, the reality of climate change. They are the enemies of us all.”
Australia is at a key juncture before global climate-change talks next month, trying to pass a carbon pollution reduction plan. The United Nations will host delegates from 192 nations in Copenhagen in December to seek a new emission-reduction treaty for industrialized and developing economies, Bloomberg reports.
News agencies also report, Australia said it will invest $50 million to develop green technologies in India, in a sign Canberra was trying to bridge differences with New Delhi over climate change negotiations.
India has slammed the so-called "Australian Proposal" on climate change that seeks to remove the distinction between rich and poorer nations, calling on both sides to cut emissions.
Developing countries led by India and China say negotiations should be based on a previously agreed U.N. framework that requires rich nations to take deep emission cuts while putting no such restrictions on poorer countries, Indian officials say.
India is also unhappy Australia refuses to supply uranium to nations that have not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty, undermining an India-U.S. civilian nuclear deal which allowed uranium to be supplied to India for the first time in decades, Reuters reports.
The investment toward the joint research initiative seeks to support more applied research and greater participation of industry partners to help address some of the climate change challenges, according to an Australian government statement.
Australia has already invested $20 million in the Australia-India Strategic Research Fund -- its largest bilateral research fund -- since 2006 to enable Australian scientists engage in collaborative research with Indian counterparts.
Australia will also invest $1 million in a joint solar cooling research project and an additional $20 million in dryland farming research, according to the statement.
The solar cooling project aims to develop a zero emissions cooling system targeted at remote rural communities in non-electrified areas and the fund allotted toward dryland farming will be staggered over five years.
"Of course there is a group of people who deny the reality of climate change. They are the enemies of us all," Mr. Rudd said, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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