No.309 SIM音読用英文

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Australia Leads World in New Greenhouse Gas Pollution Index
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The global pollution report has been compiled

by a British company, Maplecroft.


Using U.S. Energy Department data,

it calculated that Australia's per capita output of carbon dioxide

at 18.66 metric tons a year,

four percent higher than the United States.


In a list of 185 countries,

Canada, the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia rounded out the top five.


China remains the world's biggest overall greenhouse gas polluter,

followed by the United States.


Australia's position as the worst per capita emitter of carbon dioxide,

which many scientists blame for global warming,

is a result of its heavy reliance

on cheap supplies of coal.


About 80 percent of the country's electricity is generated

by coal-fired power stations.


Canberra has committed

to cutting its greenhouse gas pollution

by up to 25 percent by 2020

compared to 2000 levels.


Professor Barry Brook from Adelaide University

says a global plan of action to cut emissions is more important

than the performance of individual countries.


The British pollution report has been released

ahead of a major United Nations summit in Copenhagen in December

aiming to agree to a new climate change treaty

to replace the Kyoto Protocol.


The Australian government hopes

to have a sweeping carbon emissions trading system in place

before the summit in Denmark.


Its plans, however, suffered a parliamentary defeat last month,

leaving the program in doubt.


Scientists have warned

that Australia - a vast, dry island that's home to 21 million people -

is particularly susceptible

to the effects of global warming

and could suffer more severe bushfires, droughts and storms,

if temperatures continue to rise.



Parts of Australia have experienced

their warmest winters on record,

which climatologists have blamed

on both the effects of climate change and natural variability.


Phil Mercer for VOA News, Sydney, Australia