Australian prime minister said he and US president Barack Obama take climate change 'very seriously'

Tony Abbott has labelled himself a conservationist who believes humanity should “rest lightly on the planet”.



The Australian prime minister made the remark as he sought to downplay any suggestion of disagreement with Barack Obama over climate change.

Abbott, who is pushing to dismantle the legislated carbon pricing scheme and replace it with a government-funded competitive grants scheme, said after a meeting with the US president that both leaders took climate change “very seriously”.

“It was a very constructive and genial discussion because we all want to do the right thing by our planet,” Abbott told the ABC.

“I regard myself as a conservationist. Frankly, we should rest lightly on the planet and I’m determined to ensure that we do our duty by the future here.”

It is not the first time Abbott has described himself as a conservationist. He has previously said that the terms “conservative” and “conservation” had a common root – both involved “keeping the best of what we have”.

But Abbott has also previously drawn criticism from environmental groups for describing the forestry industry as “the ultimate conservationists” and for saying he could “think of few things more damaging to our future” than leaving coal in the ground.

Abbott told a forestry industry dinner in March: “So when I look out at an audience such as this this evening, when I look out tonight at an audience of people who work with timber, who work in forests, I don’t see people who are environmental bandits. I see people who are the ultimate conservationists.

“Man and the environment are meant for each other. The last thing we do – the last thing we should want – if we want to genuinely improve our environment is to want to ban men and women from enjoying it, is to ban men and women from making the most of it. And that’s what you do. You intelligently make the most of the good things that God has given us.”

In May Abbott told a minerals industry event it was important not to demonise the coal industry: “If there was one fundamental problem, above all else, with the carbon tax was that it said to our people, it said to the wider world, that a commodity which in many years is our biggest single export, somehow should be left in the ground and not sold.

“Well, really and truly, I can think of few things more damaging to our future.”

