December 2007
Steering A New Course: Australian Environmental Policy No Longer "Rudderless"
As a new dawn emerged in Australian politics earlier this month, the United States was left as the only developed nation not to have signed and ratified the Kyoto protocol. Newly elected Prime Minister Kevin Rudd brought an end to 11 years of conservative rule with his recent election win and promised to "plan for the country’s future".
Foremost amongst this, were his plans for the environment as evidenced when signing the paperwork to ratify the Kyoto protocol:
"This is the first official act of the new Australian Government, demonstrating my government’s commitment to tackling climate change."
Rejecting the arguments of the previous Howard administration that jobs would be lost and the energy-export reliant economy damaged by ratification, Rudd pointed to both science and social responsibility in justifying his actions. The environmental think tank, the Climate Institute, stated growth would fall by only 0.1 percent of gross domestic product annually if Australia set a target of 20 percent cuts in emissions by 2020 and aimed to be carbon neutral by 2050. Furthermore, Rudd emphasized the need for international co-operation on the matter, including Australia’s. Speaking at the Bali conference, he told delegates that "Australia now stands ready to assume its responsibility in responding to this challenge -- both at home and in the negotiations that lie ahead across the community of nations."
Although in comparative terms a relatively small polluter, Australia’s attitude towards climate change carries particular weight in the international community. Primarily, this is because Australia represented the United States’ only ally amongst developed nations who refuted binding international emissions targets. Secondly Australia is the world’s top coal exporter and biggest greenhouse gas emitter in per-capita terms, beating even the United States.
Domestically, Rudd has not needed to do much in order to capitalise on domestic concerns in building momentum for his climate change agenda. With Australia set to head into its sixth year of drought, the worst seen there for a thousand years, the effects of climate change are visible to most Australians. In any case, Rudd was emphatic in his address to the UN delegates, which catered for both an international and domestic audience:
"For Australians, climate change is no longer a distant threat. Our rivers are dying, bushfires are more ferocious and more frequent and our natural wonders -the Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu, our rainforests - are now at risk."
Indeed, the Prime Minister does not just wish to join the ranks of world leaders taking action over climate change, but to lead them. In a conversation with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao that took place at the start of December, he offered to "act as a bridge" between China and the developed world in negotiating emissions cuts, marking Australia as a climate change standard-bearer. Moreover, his decision in choosing China to conduct his first discussions as Prime Minister with, and his ability to do so entirely in Mandarin signals the possibility of real progress, rather than vague hyperbole.
Whilst pledging to cut Australia’s greenhouse gas emission by 60% by 2050, he has however refused to commit to short term targets, citing the need for economic studies to be conducting. Regardless, Prime Minister Rudd has brought fresh hope to Kyoto, Bali and the politics of global environmentalism. And with the exception of the US delegate, he expressed the view of the developed world in his opening speech on the necessity for progress:
"The community of nations must reach agreement. There is no plan B. There is no other planet any of us can escape to."
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