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Prime Minister Kevin Rudd at Carnegie Mellon University
Release Date: Oct 29, 2009
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd at Carnegie Mellon
Speaking at Carnegie Mellon University, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd called on nations to ‘step up to the plate’ on climate change issues and to reduce carbon emissions.
He has called on G20 leaders to provide financial support to the world’s poorest nations who cannot manage emission reductions on their own.
In a speech to staff and students today, Prime Minister Rudd said the G20 needed to address two key issues: the global financial crisis and climate change.
"The global economy is fragile. The full impact (of the global financial crisis) will be felt for sometime in Australia and around the world,” he said.
He said many countries will face rising joblessness for some time to come.
“Australia is doing better (than some other areas of the world), but it would be foolish to make the mistake (of assuming) the global economic crisis is over."
Prime Minister Rudd had earlier visited the University’s robotics laboratory and made special mention of it in the speech.
"It is innovation of this calibre that we are going to need to tackle climate change effectively," he said.
Prime Minister Rudd said that Australia and Carnegie Mellon share three common interests: CMU has a campus in Adelaide, Australia, CMU and Australia both place an emphasis on robotics and both are focused on finding solutions to global warming.
Declaring himself a "nerd", he admitted that he used Google to learn about Pittsburgh.
In this photo from left to right: The honourable Kevin Rudd, current Prime Minister of Australia and Dr. Jared Cohon, President, Carnegie Mellon University