Why did Australia’s representatives insert wording into the Rio + 20 statement that weakened the world’s committment to ending these pernicious subsidies?

And why aren’t we party to the group of countries that is trying to achieve fossil fuel subsidy reform? NZ has raised their voice, but Australia remains captive to an industry that is destroying our future.

This forwarded para from today’s Crikey gives the figures:

Oil Change International estimates the figure to be between $775 
billion and $1 trillion each year. The Australian government 
estimates that our own our fossil fuel subsidies are between $A6-9 
billion, although a report from the UTS Institute of Sustainable
 Futures a few years ago put the figure as high as $11 billion.

Gee, that's a lot of potential investment in a post-carbon future, 
but if the game continues with  these rules, maybe we won't have 
to worry about that.