There’s a saying, “better late than never” and Australia has finally ratified the Kyoto protocol, all it took was for the Australian people to kick John Howard out of office. 😉 Of course he was turfed for more than just that but hey having Australia onboard is definitely good news. The Aussies have a lot of work to do if they want to meet their goals but it seems like there is the political will to change down there. That leaves the US as the only developed nation that hasn’t signed onto Kyoto.
Australia won an ovation at the start of U.N.-led climate change talks in Bali on Monday by agreeing to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, isolating the United States as the only developed nation outside the pact.
Source: Reuters
Canada’s Conservative government also deserves some shame for openly dismissing its Kyoto commitments. 🙁 Sure the Liberals didn’t do much when they were in power but the Conservatives have given up completely and followed the US route with its talk of greenhouse gas intensity or intensity based targets (which in theory allows our output to increase forever). Don’t be fooled by the fancy wording, intensity targets do almost nothing to address climate change.
There’s been a lot of complaining by the developed world that India and China must fall in line before any action is done but is it fair to demand that those two countries restrict themselves when the Western world did not when it advanced in the 20th century? Why should those two countries have to bear such a large load because of the West’s mistakes? If we truly want India and China to jump on board, we must lead by example and make sacrifices now.
Our future will be green whether we want it to be or not, isn’t it better that the Western world have a head start and implement things the way we want rather than on the terms of others? Many people like to rant about China’s environmental record but consider this, it’s already laying down the infrastructure for a green future and China depends a lot more on renewable sources of energy than anyone else in the world. Heck it spent $10 billion this year on green technology! That’s more than double what the US spent in 2006!
Haha this is rather embarrassing, I’m at work and lost my train of thought… Anyway good for Australia, I hope Canada and the US get their act together.
