New Delhi, Dec 18 (IANS) With last-minute negotiations on at Copenhagen to rescue the UN climate summit, Australia Friday rebutted media reports that it had “cooked the books” by allegedly ignoring emissions from agriculture and forestry sectors.
Refuting reports in a section of the Indian media that Australia’s carbon emission report was wrong or misleading, Australian High Commissioner to India Peter Varghese said his country was “a world leader in monitoring and providing access to information about its greenhouse gas emissions and sinks”.

The date and reporting was reviewed and verified by the UN and independent experts and none had raised concerns about Australia’s reports, the envoy said.

Australia’s reporting was “fully consistent” with its international obligations and there is simply no basis to the allegation that Canberra’s report was anything other than “completely transparent”, the envoy asserted.

The reports in a section of the Indian media, quoting Australia’s Greens Party, suggested that Canberra had sought to “cook the books” by allegedly ignoring emissions from the agriculture and forestry sectors.

Early this week, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that Australia was trying to cook the books on Land-Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) policy, masking increases in industrial pollution by hiding them in the likes of soil and forests.