Australia PM says hasn't ruled out ratifying Kyoto
Date: 05-Sep-02
Country: AUSTRALIA
Author: Andrea Hopkins
"If we become convinced in the months ahead that it's in Australia's interest to sign the protocol, we'll sign it whether America has signed it or not," Howard told Brisbane radio.
Environmentalists hailed the comment as a big shift for major coal exporter Australia, which has sided with its ally, the United States, in rejecting the pact on cutting greenhouse gas emissions that some scientists blame for rising temperatures.
The government has repeatedly stated that a Kyoto accord which does not include the United States, the world's biggest polluter, is unviable.
The prime minister's softened tone followed the last-minute conversions of Canada and Russia.
Russia's prime minister told world leaders attending the Earth summit in Johannesburg this week he expected Russia to ratify the Kyoto protocol soon, while Canada's prime minister said he would allow parliament to vote on the controversial pact.
Should Canberra decide to ratify the pact it signed up to along with other developed nations in 1997, it would leave Washington alone among the major industrialised nations in firmly opposing Kyoto.
"We see this as a real chink of light," said Australian Conservation Foundation campaign director John Connor.
"The prime minister appears to have dropped one of his key criteria for not ratifying the Kyoto protocol. Previously he said they won't ratify if the U.S. doesn't ratify," he told Reuters.
Connor said Howard also appeared to be dropping a condition that developing nations be equally bound by emissions targets, as he did not mention them, and that his sole remaining criteria seemed to be national interest.
CONCERNS REMAIN
But Howard said that while Australia was committed to meeting its target set by the treaty of an eight percent increase in greenhouse gas emissions by 2012, he remained concerned that ratification would hurt Australia's energy exporters.
In June, Howard told parliament it was not in the interest of Australia to ratify Kyoto if the United States and developing nations were not held to the same standards, and said concern over jobs and industry meant he would continue to oppose it.
Under the pact, industrialised nations must cut emissions by an average five percent by 2012 from 1990 levels, but 55 nations producing 55 percent of world emissions of carbon dioxide - the main greenhouse gas - must ratify the pact to make it binding.
Australia won the right to increase its emissions by eight percent above 1990 levels.
Howard has come under pressure from carbon-intensive industries like mining to stay out of the pact.
But the Business Council for Sustainable Energy said the nation would lose out on significant export opportunities if it did not ratify the deal.
"There is an opportunity for hundreds of millions of dollars in exporting abatement, so the economic interests are quite significant for Australian industry," spokesman Rupert Posner told Reuters.
