Australia says "no" to Kyoto
Wednesday, 5 June 2002 12:06The Australian Prime Minister has said his country, the world's largest coal exporter, will not ratify the Kyoto treaty. John Howard made the announcement before parliament today.
So far, 50 countries have endorsed the treaty, which aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Japan joined the long list of countries yesterday, and urged the world's largest polluter, USA, to join up.
But US President George W Bush has made it clear his country will not be ratifying the agreement and up until now, the Australian government had been undecided. Today, John Howard told the Australian parliament that ratifying the treaty would cost jobs and damage industry, and was therefore not in Australia's interest.
The 1997 UN treaty aims to reduce heat-trapping gases blamed for rising global temperatures. Under the pact, industrialised nations must cut emissions by an average of 5% by 2012 from 1990 levels, but 55 nations producing 55% of world carbon dioxide emissions -- the main greenhouse gas -- must ratify the pact to make it binding.
But at Kyoto, Australia in fact won the right to increase its emissions by eight percent above 1990 levels.
