 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
Australia one of the main laggards in the international climate negotiations, has shown strong reluctance to agree to becoming a proper legal Party to the Protocol. The November elections gave Premier Howard another term, and only the opposition party leader had announced that he was in favour of Australia's ratification. While the government took a cautiously positive approach for many months, on Earth Day 2002 in June, Prime M inisterr Howard said publicly that his country would not ratify the KP (source). This rejection seems particularly out of place since recent studies show that Australia could reduce its emissions significantly. However, as the rest of the world except for the US and Australia was united stronglyon the ratification of Kyoto at the WSSD in Johannesburg, the PM seemed to reconsider his position. |
|
 |