Kyoto is go: Labor leader Kevin Rudd can barely contain his joy as he delivers his victory speech after winning the federal elections in his hometown of Brisbane, 24 November 2007. Australia's 13.5 million voters ousted Prime Minister John Howard after 11 years of conservative rule to install a centre-left government.
Credit: AFP
SYDNEY: Australia's new leader, Kevin Rudd, can expect a rock star's welcome to the world stage at crucial U.N. climate change talks in Bali next month but faces some headaches first, say analysts.
Prime minister-elect Rudd will be hailed for pledging to reverse Australia's past policy and ratify the Kyoto Protocol on curbing emissions of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.
Australia's ratification will leave U.S. President George W. Bush isolated as the only remaining major world leader to have refused to sign up to the U.N. treaty.
Pariah no more
Rudd's predecessor John Howard, ousted in weekend elections, was a staunch Bush ally and had also refused to sign, making Australia a fellow pariah state in the global climate change debate.
Former U.S. vice president Al Gore, who went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize as an environmental campaigner, used to call Howard and Bush the "Bonnie and Clyde" of climate change – a reference to the notorious U.S. bank robbers.
On Tuesday, Rudd told a news conference that Gore had telephoned to congratulate him on his victory and that the two would meet at the Bali conference.
"We talked a lot about climate change and some of the important things that need to be done globally. We'll resume that conversation in Bali over a strong cup of tea or something stronger," he said.
Ovation like no other
Gore's reaction to Rudd's win was a sign of things to come, according to Clive Hamilton, founder of the Australia Institute think-tank. "When Kevin Rudd announces to the plenary session of the U.N. climate change conference in Bali in two weeks' time that Australia will ratify the Kyoto Protocol he will receive an ovation like no other in his life, one that will reverberate in headlines around the world," he said.
"Rarely has a prime minister been granted the opportunity to become a celebrated world leader within weeks of being elected," Hamilton added.
Rudd told the news conference he was still studying the process involved in implementing his campaign pledge to ratify Kyoto. "There's a range of ways in which the ratification process can be transacted and I'm seeking further advice on that now," he said.
Rudd said he hoped to be able to present a complete statement on the issue by the time his cabinet is sworn in next Monday.
Legal hurdles
But an international law expert warned that ratifying the treaty could take some time, with normal processes requiring an impact analysis, a parliamentary inquiry and the passing of a new law giving effect to the protocol.
"The simple act of ratifying Kyoto may create the first set of headaches for the new government," said Australia National University's Donald Rothwell, in Canberra, adding that it was unlikely to be completed by the end of the year.
"However, given the urgency of Kyoto ratification it seems highly unlikely these impediments will be allowed to stand in the way of a highly symbolic first act of the new government," he said.
Climate change scorched its way to the forefront of Australia's election campaign as the worst drought on record, in the world's driest inhabited continent, raised popular concern about global warming.
The December 3 to 14 meeting in Bali, Indonesia, of parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change aims to agree a two-year roadmap for deciding emissions cuts and other action after 2012, when the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol runs out.
Australia's department of the environment says the country is well within reach of meeting its targets under the first phase of the protocol, which calls for greenhouse gas emissions to be no more than 108 per cent of those in 1990.
