Australia hopeful on climate change declaration (Extra)

Sep 8, 2007, 3:17 GMT

Sydney - Australia is satisfied with the outcome of intensive negotiations over a regional statement on climate change, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Saturday.

He said Australia hoped the statement would be approved at a meeting later Saturday in Sydney of the 21 world leaders, including US President George W Bush, China's Hu Jintao and Russia's Vladimir Putin, attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders' summit.

Senior officials have finished negotiations over the draft 'Sydney Declaration,' which the leaders are to examine.

The statement reportedly says that aspirational targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions are critical to a post-Kyoto framework on climate change, which will be negotiated at a United Nations meeting in Bali, Indonesia in December.

Downer said Australia was happy with the way the climate change discussions had progressed.

'We've put a lot of emphasis on climate change being a centrepiece of this meeting and that has been embraced by all of the delegations that I've dealt with here,' he told reporters.

But he would not confirm whether the key elements of the agreement would consist of non-binding targets.

'I think this meeting is going to be important if the draft Sydney Declaration survives through the leaders' meeting,' he said. 'I think this has the potential to be an important step forward in terms of Asia Pacific, and in the end, of global consideration of the issue of climate change.'

'There obviously had to be some difficult negotiations because this question of climate change is wreathed with nuance and complexity,' said Downer.