Mr Barry Jones asked the Prime Minister, upon notice, on 25 August 1997:

(1) Has his attention been drawn to the statement by 131 professional Australian economists on climate change, published by the Australia Institute on 23 June 1997.

(2) Has his attention also been drawn to the argument in the statement signed in the US by almost 2500 economists, including six Nobel Laureates.

(3) Does the statement challenge the intellectual basis of the Government's policy in resisting the adoption of binding targets for reductions in Greenhouse gases.

(4) Is the Government working on the assumption that there will be a straight line projection increase in coal use worldwide, and that the use of alternative fuels, or adoption of significant energy saving strategies will be against Australia's economic interest.

(5) Is the Government committed to the philosophy of comparative advantage and has it given consideration to the concept of competitive advantage.

(6) What is his response to paragraph (3) of the Australian statement that the economic modelling studies on which the Government is relying to assess the impacts of reducing Australia's greenhouse gas emissions overestimate the costs and underestimate the benefits of reducing emissions.

Mr Howard —The answer to the honourable member's question is as follows:

(1) Yes.

(2) Yes.

(3) No.

(4) The answer to both questions is no. World growth rates in coal production and consumption will vary, although overall they are predicted to increase significantly—a 50% rise from 1992 levels by 2010 is predicted by this year's International Energy Agency's Coal Information Report. Much of this will be driven by demand for electricity in Asia. The government does not believe that alternative fuels or energy saving is against our national interest: Australia has significant strengths in these areas such as an expanding LNG market, significant potential to increase uranium exports, and leading-edge renewable energy expertise and technologies.

(5) The government's policy approach maximises our comparative advantage by efficiently taking advantage of our natural resources and economic base, and at the same time encouraging the development of a strong competitive advantage.

(6) There have been several economic modelling studies that the government has consulted in the development of its climate change policy. Several studies have produced essentially similar results, indicating that Australia's costs in meeting uniform greenhouse targets are much higher than those of other Annex I countries. None of the current economic models estimates emission-reduction benefits, so the issue of such estimates as being too high or too low is not applicable.