Australia govt adamant it will not approve Kyoto By Michelle Nichols Source: Reuters 22 Oct 2004 http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SYD74748.htm
CANBERRA, Oct 22 (Reuters) - As Russia prepares to vote to ratify the Kyoto protocol and allow the global climate change pact to come into force, Australia's conservative government remained adamant on Friday it would not approve the treaty. The stand by the government, which will be sworn in for a fourth term on Tuesday, comes after a series of storms, droughts and heat waves that suggests global warming might be having a faster impact on climate change than previously thought. A record 10th typhoon of the season struck Japan this week, killing at least 69 people, while four hurricanes lashed Florida and the Caribbean over a five-week period recently. Prime Minister John Howard argues that Australia will meet the targets for greenhouse gas emissions set at Kyoto, but will not ratify the pact because he believes it would push industry and jobs offshore to countries which do not back the agreement. "The government will not sign the Kyoto protocol. Australia is already reducing greenhouse gas emissions," a spokesman for Howard told Reuters on Friday. The government has long said that the Kyoto treaty -- aimed at cutting emissions of gases such as carbon dioxide which are blamed for global warming -- could not work because top polluters such as the United States and China would never comply. "Therefore it would be more attractive for industry to invest in those countries rather than Australia and that would take investment and also jobs out of our country," Howard told Australian radio earlier this month. Howard's view is similar to that of U.S. President George W. Bush. Greenpeace disputed the Australian leader's argument. "By locking us out of Kyoto ... John Howard is making it more expensive and more difficult for Australian companies to do their bit to tackle climate change," Danny Kennedy, Greenpeace Australia Pacific Campaigns manager, told Reuters on Friday. EXTREME WEATHER "John Howard must respond to the weight of public opinion, the necessities of global business and increasing extreme weather by ratifying the Kyoto Protocol and joining the international effort to tackle climate change, the greatest challenge of our age." Australia is one of the world's top carbon dioxide producers on a per-capita basis and its energy resources are a major source of wealth and jobs. Energy exports are worth more than A$24 billion ($17.5 billion) a year. U.S. climate experts said on Thursday that extreme weather such as the heat waves that killed tens of thousands of Europeans last year is only the beginning. Ice is melting faster than anyone predicted in the Antarctic and Greenland, ocean currents are changing and the seas are warming, the experts said. "This year, the unusually intense period of destructive activity, with four hurricanes hitting in a five-week period, could be a harbinger of things to come," one of the experts, Dr. Paul Epstein, associate director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School, told reporters. Russia's parliament was due to vote on Friday on ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, the last hurdle before the long-delayed treaty comes into force. Kyoto becomes binding once it has been ratified by 55 percent of the signatories, which must altogether account for 55 percent of developed countries' carbon dioxide emissions. So far 126 countries have signed but they only make up 44 percent of emissions by rich nations. Russian ratification will take that figure through the 55 percent threshold. China has approved the treaty but has no obligation to cut carbon dioxide emissions during the pact's first phase to 2012. The China Daily said on Thursday the government is drafting a law requiring power companies to buy electricity generated by green energy sources. ($1=A$1.35) _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://wwia.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/biofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuel archives at Infoarchive.net (searchable): http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/
