Labor leader Kevin Rudd has urged the United States to ratify the Kyoto protocol, arguing that both Australia and the US are unable to properly tackle climate change until they do.
Mr Rudd, who is on his first visit to the US since becoming opposition leader late last year, has told an American research institute that Australia, China and the US must work together to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Climate change was the great moral, environmental and economic challenge facing the world, he told the Brookings Institution in Washington.
"On this question, our respective national positions are compromised by our refusal so far to ratify the Kyoto protocol," Mr Rudd said....
5 de Diciembre del 2007Mr Rudd, who is on his first visit to the US since becoming opposition leader late last year, has told an American research institute that Australia, China and the US must work together to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Climate change was the great moral, environmental and economic challenge facing the world, he told the Brookings Institution in Washington.
"On this question, our respective national positions are compromised by our refusal so far to ratify the Kyoto protocol," Mr Rudd said....
In a turnaround that leaves the United States as the only developed country refusing to sign the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions, Australia’s new prime minister, Kevin Rudd, signed the agreement on Monday only hours after taking office. "Australia's official declaration today that we will become a member of the Kyoto Protocol is a significant step forward in our country's efforts to fight climate change domestically and with the international community," said Rudd in his inaugural address before leaving for Bali to attend a UN climate change conference that began on Monday.The Kyoto Protocol dates back to 1997 and expires in 2012. It commits the member countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by five percent in the period between 2008 and 2012, in relation to their 1990 levels....
