|
|
|
|
National Tree Day Planet Ark Home
|
|
|
||
|
Australia's Labor would ratify Kyoto climate pact |
||
|
Mail this story to a friend | Printer friendly version
|
||
| AUSTRALIA: October 10, 2001 | ||
|
SYDNEY - Australia's Labor opposition yesterday set out to woo the green vote, pledging to ratify the ailing Kyoto protocol on climate change if it wins a tough November 10 general election.
|
||
|
The 1997 agreement on cutting greenhouse gases was an opportunity to create new technology jobs, and to save the environment, said centre-left Labor leader Kim Beazley. "Today I'm announcing a policy about Australia's long-term future, not a policy for the next three weeks or to get you through an election campaign, but a long-term policy for the future of this nation," Beazley told reporters in Sydney. Beazley began the year as a sure bet to win the 2001 election as voters fumed over tax changes, high fuel prices and economic reforms. But in the past month he has become the underdog as conservative Prime Minister John Howard surfs a wave of anti-illegal immigrant sentiment and war fever to what he hopes will be a third consecutive term. Under the Kyoto protocol, developed nations agreed to cut carbon dioxide emissions thought responsible for global warming by an average of 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. The pact ran into serious trouble this year when the world's top polluter, the United States, rejected it. Howard's government has been sympathetic to the U.S. stance while the European Union is pressing other nations, such as major coal exporter Australia, to ratify it regardless of U.S. participation.
|
||
|
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
|
||
|
