UK trade minister brands Australian climate storm ‘fake news’

09/14/2021

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Emilio Casalicchio | Politico

U.K. International Trade Secretary Liz Truss said reports Britain dropped demands on Australia to sign up to climate targets were “fake news.”

Truss said Australia had “committed for the first time in any trade agreement a clause on climate change.”

It was reported last week that ministers agreed to drop binding temperature targets in the Paris climate change deal from the trade pact between Britain and Australia.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison confirmed the reports when speaking to journalists. He said it “wasn’t a climate agreement, it was a trade agreement” — despite the insistence from Britain that the deal has numerous climate safeguards.

But Truss argued in response to a question from POLITICO: “Australia has committed for the first time in any trade agreement a clause on climate change. Both parties have reaffirmed their commitment to Paris which is what we agreed at [agreement in principle] and what will be in the final deal. So the stuff you’re repeating is simply fake news about that.”

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