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The contributors to this book focus on climate change issues in Australia, New Zealand and the small island nations in the South Pacific, as the world struggles to formulate responses and cope with possible impacts of global warming. The emphasis is on the scientific, political and legal issues that frame the climate change debate. An effort is made to assess the implications of climate on critical ecosystems in the region, as well as possible social and economic impacts on the region's inhabitants. Many of the contributors also discuss the role of regional actors, including government representatives and non-government organizations, in the formulation and evolution of the primary international legal instrument that addresses climate change, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
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CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC: IMPACTS AND RESPONSES IN AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND, AND SMALL ISLAND STATES ADVANCES IN GLOBAL CHANGE RESEARCH VOLUME 2 Editor-in-Chief Martin Beniston, Institute of Geography, University of Fribourg, Perolles, Switzerland Editorial Advisory Board B. Allen-Diaz, Department ESPM-Ecosystem Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A. R.S. Bradley, Department of Geosciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, U.S.A. W. Cramer, Department of Global Change and Natural Systems, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Potsdam, Germany. H.F. Diaz, NOAA/ERL/CDC, Boulder, CO, U.S.A. S. Erkman, Institute for Communication and Analysis of Science and Technology – ICAST, Geneva, Switzerland. M. Lal, Centre for Atmospheric Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India. M.M. Verstraete, Space Applications Institute, EC Joint Research Centre, Ispra (VA), Italy. The titles in this series are listed at the end of this volume. CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC: IMPACTS AND RESPONSES IN AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND, AND SMALL ISLAND STATES Edited by Alexander Gillespie University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand and William C.G. Burns Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security, Oakland, CA, U.S.A. KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS NEW YORK, BOSTON, DORDRECHT, LONDON, MOSCOW eBook ISBN: Print ISBN: 0-306-47981-8 0-7923-6077-X ©2003 Kluwer Academic Publishers New York, Boston, Dordrecht, London, Moscow Print ©2000 Kluwer Academic Publishers Dordrecht All rights reserved No part of this eBook may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without written consent from the Publisher Created in the United States of America Visit Kluwer Online at: and Kluwer's eBookstore at: http://kluweronline.com http://ebooks.kluweronline.com This book is dedicated to Al’s son, Lex and Wil’s partner, Tamar This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS Introduction Alexander Gillespie & William C.G. Burns 1 1 The Potential Impacts of Climate Change R.N. Jones, A.B. Pittock and P.H. Whetton 7 2 The Formation of Australian Climate Change Policy: 1985-1995 Harriet Bulkeley 33 3 Climate Change Policies in Australia Clive Hamilton 51 4 A Critique of the Australian Government’s Greenhouse Policies Mark Diesendorf 79 5 Climate Change Policy Formation in Australia: 1995-1998 R. Taplin and X. Yu 95 6 The Australian Position at the Kyoto Conference X. Yu and R. Taplin 113 7 The Impacts of Climate Change on New Zealand Reid E. Basher 121 8 New Zealand Climate Policy Between 1990 and 1996: A Greenpeace Perspective Kirsty Hamilton 143 New Zeal