It was predictable that environmental groups would give the thumbs-down - and industry groups the thumbs-up - to the high-profile talks on climate change last week in Australia.
The nations that took part in the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate forum meeting in Sydney saw it as an alternative to the Kyoto process, which sets out mandatory reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions.
The environmental lobby in Australia is appalled over what it regards as a grossly inadequate sum of A$100 million ($585 million) pledged by Prime Minister John Howard to help support the clean-air industry, benefiting China, India and other countries. There is also outrage that Australia is continuing to pursue an agreement to export uranium to China, as long as it is used for peaceful purposes.
Mr Howard announced that his government would commit A$100 million over five years to support clean development projects, capacity-building activities and Australia's continuing role in the partnership. One-quarter of the funding will be for renewable-energy projects.
Don Henry, who runs Australia's largest environmental group, the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF), said that A$25 million would build only one wind farm in China - a mere drop in the ocean.
And as for selling uranium to Beijing under a safeguard agreement, that's poppycock, according to Dave Sweeney, the ACF's anti-nuclear campaigner. 'The key things which have been so important in improving the nuclear industry in the west - the independent trade unions, rigorous media, independent regulators, green groups, environmental watchdogs - these don't exist in China,' said Mr Sweeney.
The sale of uranium to China is not only angering the environmental movement, but it's also splitting the opposition Australian Labor Party (ALP).