Coming up after the news it's hard to quiz me should lie since September 29000 bushfires of consumed 10000000 hectares of land in Australia that's almost the size of England Australia's annual season of 5 has become earlier last longer than ever before many see it is evidence of climate change although the government says it's not as simple as that condemned by its specific neighbors for inaction does Australia's foreign passes and for the environment for his nation is becoming a climate where I see a mystery is the climate was I think a vesting I think the more extreme voices of being more muted my sense is that will continue people understand climate is real they're seeing the impacts that they're feeling and when people see that favor and they want things to be done and I think governments around the world are recognizing that and certainly a strain government has and will yes I do think the Australian Government should be doing more in climate change but they sickening they will have another look and I think that's very positive that's Patrick's suckling on hard talk after the news. Hello I'm David Harper with the b.b.c. News the Palestinians have dismissed President Trump's new peace plan for the Middle East saying Jerusalem was not for sale they've been offered financial incentives to follow a path toward statehood but their land would be severely truncated Israel has embraced the deal it would get Jerusalem as its capital and sovereignty over its West Bank settlements our Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen says the plan may only engender more despair among Palestinians President Trump says he's found a new way to make peace between Israel and the Palestinians Israel will get the security it needs Palestinians will get the state they crave so far so good except that the Trump land gives Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu all he wants and offers Palestinians very little sort of state that will be truncated without proper sovereignty surrounded by Israel's territory and threaded between Jewish settlements a century the message to the Palestinians is take it or leave it the authorities in who pay the Chinese province at the center of the outbreak of a new respiratory virus have reported a further $25.00 deaths across China the total number of infections now stands at almost 6000 the 1st plane of foreign nationals evacuated from hand has arrived in Tokyo the 206 Japanese citizens were given health checks before being allowed to disembark u.s. Nationals are also being flown out 3 more cases of the virus have been reported in Germany and one in Japan has focused Walsh to date there have been 3 confirmed instances of person to person transmission of the corona virus outside China the Japanese case is a tour bus driver in his sixty's who ferried around 2 groups of visitors from Wu Han in Germany a 33 year old man was infected by a Chinese woman while they were on a training course in Bavaria she only fell ill on the plane back to. China which further strengthens the evidence that some people are contagious before they develop symptoms the tech giant Apple has posted its highest ever quarterly results for the final 3 months of last year its net profit reached a record $22000000000.00 But the c.e.o. Tim Cook has Wonder future uncertainty because of the corona virus outbreak in China so he Thomas reports Apple's chief executive Tim Cook said the company was monitoring the situation in we were on and across China closely in we're on where an outbreak of Corona virus has led to a region wide quarantine Apple said it was looking for alternative suppliers it wasn't all worries for Apple though the company saw in almost a $3000000000.00 increase in the sale of wearables home and accessories that's thanks in large part to demand for its newest Apple Watch an Air Pod wireless your buds services including the recently launched Apple t.v. Plus an Apple news plus also saw a tremendous growth so he told us Well news from the b.b.c. . A new report says that global dissatisfaction with Democratic politics has reached an all time high Cambridge University research as analyzed data from more than 4000000 people they say democracy is in a state of Malays particularly in developed countries in Britain Australia Brazil Mexico and the Us discontent has risen from a 3rd to a half of all citizens in 30 years countries where people were happiest with their democracy include Denmark Switzerland and the Netherlands. Reports from Northwestern Syria say that pro-government forces are on the verge of recapturing from rebels the strategically important town of merit a new money backed by Russian airpower they entered the south the town south of ellipse city on Choose day heavy clashes have driven tens of thousands of people towards the Turkish border Republican u.s. Senators have met to discuss whether to call witnesses in President Trump's impeachment trial the Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said Republicans do not yet have the votes to block witnesses in Friday's vote at least 3 could support democratic demands that the Senate call additional witnesses including the former national security advisor John Bolton the home of the executive vice chairman of Manchester United Football Club has been attacked with flares and graffiti by disgruntled fans chanting death threats and Woodward has been blamed by some fans for the club's poor performances and the more ports video on social media showed a group of people outside Mr Woodward's Cheshire home shouting that he was going to die one person through a red flare over a large gate Mr Woodward who is married with 2 young children was not at home at the time he's been the target of blame from some supporters for the club's current poor performance their faith in the Premier League and 33 points behind leaders livable bench 3900 said anyone committing a criminal offense would be banned for life the club said expressing an opinion was one thing but endangering life was another. Welcome to hard talk on the b.b.c. World Service with me surely so much smoke has been generated by Australia's bushfires it's created a plume the size of the continental United States NASA tracked it as it circumstantial cases the globe drought and record temperatures have created a giant tinderbox yet Australia's government insists it's too simplistic to blame climate change Patrick sucklings spent 3 years as Australia's ambassador for the environment and believes the threat is all too real but with politicians and voters still committed to exporting massive quantities of coal was he just wasting his time Patrick Suckley welcome to have talk just as some countries have a rainy season some have a hurricane season Australia has a bushfire season but how different would you say this one has been. This one's being the worst we've had in New South Wales at least so it's been unprecedented it's been horrific it's been tragic it's been a summer of hell I would say though up front taking opportunity to say our heart and we've all been by the extraordinary response and support we've had around the world for this tragic time the government says that while the threat to life remains it wants to focus on containing the far as in protecting lives all not my trick how do you think it's done. So far as to bring on President Hu they've been shocking they've been all over Australia the been hundreds of them burning at the same time normally the fire season we see fires going from north to south this time the fires have been everywhere at once so it's been an extraordinary job done by the Commonwealth level but by state governments as well but most importantly by the by the fire service on the ground who've worked night and day week in week out month out month in month month to do is the best they can to contain these fires and pick protect lives so we've lost 5500 buildings we've lost 2600 homes tragically we've lost 34 lives but but for those heroic valiant and constant efforts we would have lost a whole lot more so the response has been by and large given the magnitude of the fire is very impressive and we've seen that in the commendations in the support and the positive feedback that we've received around the world for how we as a strain on our communities of handle this extraordinary situation there is a question of leadership here isn't there at some of argued that the government has got so caught up in this debate about climate change that it hasn't been engaged with the people who would have given it the best possible advice let me put you what Greg Mullins used to lead the Fire Rescue Service in New South Wales the state you're at the moment said he says he's been trying to get a meeting with the governments it's April of last year because we knew he says it was going to be a horrified season it's very very disappointing we won't listen to earlier measures . Could've been taken months ago to make the firefighters more effective and to make the community safer that's the 1st job of government isn't it to make people's faith on that basis hasn't let them down it isn't the government takes its advice from all sorts of places and it was briefed about the unprecedented threat of big bushfires this season and so it happened and it was as bad and as worse as we could have thought the Prime Minister said in retrospect he thinks he could have done some things better perhaps listings there might have been one of them but certainly there's been a significant and dramatic and sustained effort including through our defense forces to deal with this unprecedented bushfire season the comparison is drawn has been drawn by the Australian ethic said to with how governments prepare for the risk the potential of a terrorist act they said at the start of this year they wouldn't wait until there was unanimity in the advice they received they would accept the consensus view and we know now that we have seen a consensus view developing science about climate change the consensus view of those presenting the intelligence and they take preventative action so why the central asks of our political leaders ignored the warnings of Fire Chiefs defense analysts and climate scientists and played Russian roulette with our future I think there was a high degree of preparedness is there always is for a strain bushfire season so we don't forget we've had bushfires for decade in decade out for the whole of human settlement in Australia and as you know that goes back 60000 years with our indigenous people so there's a high degree of knowledge awareness and preparation that goes into bushfire season I think the thing that happened with this season it was unprecedented there was a an extended drought so things were very dry there were all sorts of exacerbating factors like the the Indian Ocean El Nino the hot winds coming in from the stratosphere from Antarctica and of course the underlying cause of climate change making things hotter and. No I which does mean that Australia will have worse fires as we go forward unless we address the challenge of climate change so I think a lot of that was understood but the magnitude of this fire when it came was such that even despite significant preparations including a lot of preparation all sorts of different areas and control of vegetation they were as you saw unmanageable in many parts of Australia understood but perhaps not acted upon I mean the then will straightly government back in 2000 a can commission the Gano to climate change report in which Professor Garner wrote projections suggest that far season will start earlier and then slightly later is as this one has and generally be more intense governments of all political colors will warrant that the scale of this problem was going to increase and knowledgeably for a lot of Australians they didn't seem to prepared adequately for it you're right those projections have been around well since the sixty's in the seventy's the governor reported make that observation the i.p.c.c. Of the un makes those sorts of observations as well so that has fed into the thinking around preparedness and actions around bushfire season for Australia so it's not to say their story hasn't done anything as I say. But for the extraordinary efforts of an extraordinary number of people volunteers firefighters destroying defense personnel communities the devastation would have been much much worse your former diplomat you've been quite diplomatic what you've said so far which is perfectly understandable but the man who appointed you to your job was Australian ambassador for the environment Malcolm Turnbull who was Mr Morrison's predecessor as prime minister has been rather more blunt he says rather than doing what a leader should do Scott Morrison downplayed the threat at times discounted the influence of climate change which is just nonsense for a scientific point of view he says so that has misled people do you share that criticism I think you've heard the prime minister himself say as I said earlier that in retrospect he could have a job and I would slow you think a little bit better. And I think in that context climate change and recognising climate change and and accepting and messaging on climate change to the communities about the risks and Stroh's contribution to the climate change f. Around the world is an important factor but as you know that's a longer term factor I mean at the moment we have these fires upon us irrespective of whatever else was happening and in relation to mitigation around the world and in that context of those flow out of the blocks by his own admission there was an extraordinary effort by all levels of government and all that was of community to deal with the fires let me pick up on that phrase slow out of the blocks because this is a mounting criticism of Australia's attitude to the potential threat of climate change and it comes in various forms on the one hand will props talk a little bit about this. Because the politics of Australia the dependence on minerals the fact that the voters just in this last election went for a government that said climate change is not actually the key thing we have to worry about we have to balance the needs of the economy against the environment and rejected a party label. Seemed to be edging towards a more restrictions and the talk at that Australian governments have set which is that by 2030 years straightly issued decrease its emissions by 26 percent compared to 2005 a target the most observers including the United Nations now think won't be met putting all of that together is in Australia not so much leading reluctantly following in trying to restrain other countries from doing more a stronger is is not leading on climate that's fair to say but is playing its part that target that you've just mentioned the 26 to 28 percent target by 2030 that represents a having of emissions per person or 2 thirds reduction per unit of g.d.p. That's not insignificant Yes but if there's only really because it's not going to be met. Or that's the UN's you the abatement coming out of the Australian economy year on year suggests we will meet that target. The figures I've seen in you correct me if I'm wrong about this is that they've kept on increasing I think in the year to March 2019 a no point 6 percent jump in the previous year you have the projections to show that emissions are continue to increase over the last projections there's a slight fall in them but given the policy measures that are in place in the Australian economy given the extraordinary uptake of renewables in the Australian economy per capita were the highest in the world that one in 5 households has solar energy there are all sorts of things that are beginning to impact on emissions growth and you think Syria duction and as the prime minister I think one of the one of the more noticeable newsworthy things coming out of these fires on a climate change perspective is the prime minister saying that he is prepared to look at doing more to look at different policies new policies whether it's mitigation whether it's adaptation of resilience and that's a very significant. Comment from him the climate change Performance Index which is published as you know by John Walsh the International think tank in which the latest one came has in December. Described I mean apart from ranking Australia's Fick 56 and under the bottom 5 performers in terms of how it meets its climate climate emission reduction target is over the sea Gratian strategy it says experts note the new government is an increasingly of Gresson force in the Go see Asians you you were involved in some of those to go station soon you were trying as the ambassador did you find your fill of restrained by the domestic politics by frankly the internal divisions in this government which were reflected in previous governments to you know I wasn't restrained is that better for the environment for structure in terms of prosecuting our interests internationally now when we signed up to the Paris agreement in 2015 the target that we selected was comparable with Canada New Zealand Japan the United States who are in good company so the comment that I got when I was ambassador was astray is back including our current finance commitments to developing countries and not in significant including an enormous amount going to the Pacific region where you are right it was only the government has made its final payment to the fund that helps the Global Action Fund which was developed by the United Nations according to climate change news the g.c.f. Has Co financing capabilities and regional coverage Australia couldn't possibly provide on its own and yet the Australian Government has decided it isn't paying any more into the fund is that in terms of international leadership the right signal for the government to be send. Just of that fund we courage chaired it for the 1st 3 years it was a nightmare a very difficult fund it was very political it was quite incompetent fund and so the Prime Minister's view was who'd prefer to spend a Stroh's money directly with a greater impact on the ground game areas that we could control so I the same time as he announced that the story wouldn't replenish their fund he master $2000000000.00 infrastructure fund for the Pacific all of which investments would be put through a climate prism and subsequently And it's now the $500000000.00 creating an additional. $120000000.00 to leverage a $100000000000.00 worth of private sector money which is exactly the sort of financing you want to see for climate change so on that fund in particular don't take the criticism but in terms of so to serve its own so it shouldn't drop to just to clarify that in some circumstances do with climate change it is better to act like. You it's better to do things in a whole myriad of ways we contribute all sorts of multilateral funds but we also do things bilaterally and in this case in relation to that particular fund at that particular time it sits inside some governance improvements which may which we're hearing makes that fund a lot more effective but at the time the decision was made the fund was not working particularly well in the promises view was that it would be better to spend money directly in areas of most need which we could control and you yourself in an article that was published just before Christmas said that many developing countries are in parts of the world that will be more affected by climate changes they don't have the resources we need to step in and help which is clearly what you think the government is doing with this investment in the Pacific region I just wonder what the Pacific the other Pacific nations some of the most directly affected don't see it that way can I quote you and in a l.a. Episode the former prime minister of Tuvalu and forgive me if I mispronounced his name who chaired last year's Pacific Island Forum He say