Senator NETTLE (3:50 PM) —I move:

   That the Senate—

(a)   notes that:

(i)   20 June 2005 is World Refugee Day,

(ii)   according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in their World Disasters Report 2001, more people are now forced to leave their homes because of environmental disaster than because of war,

(iii)   there are approximately 25 million people who could currently be classified as being environmental refugees, some 58 per cent of the world’s total refugee population, many of whom are victims of climate change,

(iv)   according to Dr Norman Myers of Oxford University climate change could increase the number of environmental refugees six-fold to 150 million over the next 50 years, and

(v)   Australia has an unequivocal obligation to provide a humanitarian response both to addressing climate change and accepting environmental refugees, especially from our region; and

(b)   calls on the Government to:

(i)   ratify the Kyoto Protocol,

(ii)   set the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target to at least 20 per cent by 2020, and

(iii)   agree to accept Tuvaluan refugees in the event that rising sea levels force an evacuation of Tuvalu.

Question negatived.