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this week to protest actions that have cemented the nation’s status as a climate bad-boy.

The conservative government elected in September has already moved to rip up most of the country’s carbon-reduction measures, or plans to. Now, at the UN climate talks in Warsaw, the Australian delegation – which – has taken a hard-line approach, drawing firm boundaries it will not cross.

According to notes from the meetings seen by Â鶹´«Ã½, it has refused to consider mandatory financing arrangements, through which wealthy countries help fund climate mitigation and adaptation strategies in developing ones – a key pillar of the UN framework. The delegation said that the lion’s share of the money must come from the private sector because climate financing shouldn’t be welfare.

Emissions downgrade

A obtained by an Australian newspaper last week outlined the stance the country intended to take at Warsaw and in future negotiations. It reportedly indicated that Australia will not agree to cut emissions by more than 5 per cent of 2000 levels when a global deal is struck in Paris in 2015. Previously, cuts .

The document says Australia “will not support any measures which are socialism masquerading as environmentalism” – a phrase prime minister, Tony Abbott, later when asked about the scrapped carbon tax.

“Our view is that Australia can and should play a constructive role in the UN negotiations to support a strong global response to climate change,” says , Climate Change policy manager at WWF Australia. “However, there’s little doubt that the government’s actions in Warsaw have caused some to question whether Australia is indeed willing to play a positive role.”

Of the world’s 61 biggest emitters, Australia is now ranked by non-governmental organisation as the . The country has also received at the Warsaw talks, given by NGOs to uncooperative countries.