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Aust delegation heads to Poland for climate talks

Posted November 29, 2008 08:00:00

Climate Change Minister Penny Wong says an Australia delegation will arrive in Poland this weekend to begin work on a new global climate deal.

About 9,000 people are expected to participate in the United Nations Climate Change Conference and meeting of parties to the Kyoto Protocol which start in Poznan on Monday.

Senator Wong says the entrenched positions of the undeveloped economies have to move in order to achieve agreement by 2009.

"What is the live issue in the negotiations is how do you allocate responsibility for reductions, what is the appropriate burden sharing?" she said.

"Developed countries have to take the lead, but the reality is that most of the emissions growth from now to 2020 will be from developing nations."

Senator Wong says the gathering is trying to set a framework for achieving a final climate deal by 2009.

"The blame game which so often takes place in negotiations is counter-productive. We have to move on from entrenched positions of the past and find new ways forward between advanced and emerging economies," she said.

"An example of this is the way Australia and Indonesia are cooperating on forest carbon."

Tags: climate-change, federal-government, world-politics, australia, poland

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