Howard leaves Australia isolated as Kyoto to become law

In a long awaited and much heralded move, the Russian Parliament voted overnight to confirm the Cabinet’s decision two weeks ago to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. The global climate protection treaty is now set to come into force, leaving Australia and the USA the only two developed countries refusing to ratify.

Greenpeace Campaigns Manager Danny Kennedy said “While the rest of the world takes its first real steps into a new era of climate protection, John Howard stands isolated with George Bush, and by doing so is failing to protect Australia from climate change.”

“The Government’s claims that joining the Kyoto Protocol would disadvantage Australia economically couldn’t be further from the truth. In reality, by locking us out of Kyoto and the global trading system that it sets up, John Howard is making it more expensive and more difficult for Australian companies to do their bit to tackle climate change.”