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  Channel NewsAsia 5 Jan 06
Get ready for climate change refugees, Australia told

SYDNEY : The Australian government has been urged to prepare to accept a flood of refugees fleeing Pacific islands swallowed by rising sea levels caused by global warming.

"In time, it is likely that one or more Pacific island countries will have to be completely evacuated," the opposition Labor Party said in a policy statement. "Labor believes that Australia should, as part of an international coalition, do its fair share to accept climate change refugees as part of our humanitarian immigration programme."

Tuvalu was likely to be the first country to have to be evacuated, possibly followed by Kiribati, the Marshall Islands and others, according to the policy document. Tuvalu, a group of nine coral atolls in the South Pacific, had twice approached the government of Prime Minister John Howard for assistance with climate change refugees but had been turned down, Labor said. The tiny country half-way between Hawaii and Australia has a population of some 11,500 people.

"Australia needs to establish a Pacific climate change strategy and part of that, obviously, has to be dealing with the issue of climate change refugees," said Labor's environment spokesman Anthony Albanese.

The United Nations should develop a specific charter for a new class of environmental refugees, Albanese said.

Labor also urged the government to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, which commits developed countries to cutting down on the emission of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

Australia and the United States are the only two developed countries refusing to ratify the 1997 accord. Instead, they will join some of the world's biggest polluters in a search for an alternative at the inaugural meeting of the "Asia-Pacific Clean Development and Climate Partnership" here on January 11-12.

Key ministers from Australia, the United States, China, India, Japan and South Korea will launch a non-binding pact to cut greenhouse gas emissions first announced last July after months of secret negotiations.

Unlike the Kyoto Protocol, the new initiative does not have enforcement standards or a specific timeframe, leading critics to dismiss it as toothless.
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