Climate change summit disappoints Wong

Australia wanted more from the Copenhagen summit but will just have to make the best
of it, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong says.
Key nations at the troubled summit agreed to a deal that aims to limit global
warming to two degrees.
The deal has been widely panned because it includes no targets on reducing the
greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming. It's also not binding.
The troubled two-week summit of 192 nations was plagued by arguments and ended in
chaos and exhaustion, two days late.
Australia has backed the deal but Senator Wong sounded disappointed as she prepared
to fly out of the freezing Danish capital.
"Of course we would have wanted more," she told reporters on Saturday night,
Australian time.
"There are some things that we would have liked to have moved further. That is the
reality."
Senator Wong, who worked through two nights at Copenhagen and snatched power-naps on
a blow-up mattress, said Australia would keep plugging away on climate change.
"What we need is to keep pressing on. This has never been easy."
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd twittered that the Copenhagen result was the best possible
under the circumstances.
"Not everyone will be happy," the PM twittered as he embarked on his return journey
from the summit.
"Much more to do in 2010."
Protesters chained themselves to a coal railway near Newcastle on Sunday in protest
at the Copenhagen result.
Negotiators flying out of the Danish capital were scathing of the summit's result,
the summit in general, and the UN's ability to deal with the issue.
Senator Wong said the federal government's plan now was to make sure the deal was
implemented, and push for it to be made into a legally-binding agreement.
The government would also persevere with its emissions trading scheme (ETS).
But the weak Copenhagen result is a blow to the government's plans on climate change.
The opposition has pounced on the outcome to back up its plan to kill off the
emissions trading scheme, which would put a price on carbon pollution to tackle
climate change.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said Copenhagen was a dud and "very disappointing".
"(Prime Minister Kevin Rudd) said real progress means real targets against real
timelines, and certainly by that standard it's been a comprehensive failure," he
told Sky News.
The opposition has twice voted down the ETS scheme in the Senate; the government
will try again next year.
Mr Abbott said they shouldn't bother.
"I think that in the wake of this big rebuff to Mr Rudd in Copenhagen, he really
should go back to the drawing board."
Former opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull did not agree with "some people's" view
that the ETS should be dumped because Copenhagen did not yield a fully-formed global
deal.
In an entry on his blog, he said the summit was a "useful step forward".
"The fact that we do not yet have a legally binding global agreement to cut
emissions is not a bar (to an ETS)", he said.
The Australian Greens also attacked the Copenhagen deal.
"I think it's a very big setback for the planet and that means all Australians as
well," Greens leader Bob Brown told Sky News.
He called on the government to start serious negotiations with the Greens about
passing the ETS, although it appears the two parties would not be able to muster the
votes to succeed.
Treasurer Wayne Swan said despite the Copenhagen result, Australian business wanted
an ETS.
"We still believe - and it is just as relevant now as it was before Copenhagen -
that we need to pass the bill for business certainty," he told reporters in
Canberra.
"Business itself has made that case."