In Brief: Turnbull in Paris

Issue 

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull made some very modest announcements at the COP21 climate change conference.

He pledged Australia to the final years of the Kyoto protocol, an agreement that is about to lapse, and $800 million to developing nations for climate adaptation. This money is to come from existing foreign aid, which recent budgets have slashed.

In contrast, Canada's new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged $2.5 billion.

But he refused to sign a communique promising to phase out fossil fuel subsidies. The government gives $7 billion-a-year in fuel tax credits to mining and agriculture.

The communique was not a binding treaty, just a statement of intent that New Zealand's John Key happily signed.

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