The Australian Senate recently passed a motion, moved by Greens Senator Bob Brown, condemning both the US administration and the Australian government of Prime Minister John Howard for their failure to support the Kyoto Protocol. The accord, signed in 1997, calls upon industrialized countries to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases--predominantly carbon dioxide from burning of fossil fuels--by 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.

“It’s the most powerful message that can be sent to a foreign government from Australia other than from the Australian government itself,” Senator Brown said.

The Australian Democrats also joined in and called on the Howard government to assure the Parliament that Australia would not follow the US, but instead look to the UK, Europe and New Zealand in pursuing a climate change treaty independent of the Bush administration.

“Australia’s poor reputation as the highest per capita emitter in the world and our economic vulnerability to climate change means we have a lot to lose by taking the US line,” Democrats leader Senator Meg Lees argued in Parliament.

A recent report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change indicates that global warming will have an increasing impact on human and natural systems in Australia as the frequency and severity of extreme weather conditions increase. This is expected to have a negative impact on the farming, tourism, agriculture, coastal development, and other economic sectors.

The change of climate could also bring about the destruction of the Great Barrier Reef within the next 50 years, the report adds.

Although the US is the largest overall producer of greenhouse gas emissions, Australia is considered the highest producer per capita, with each person causing the equivalent of 26.7 tons of carbon dioxide to be released into the atmosphere a year.

Under the Kyoto agreement, Austrialia due to its heavy reliance on fossil fuels was allowed to limit its greenhouse gas emissions to 8 percent above its 1990s levels.

Although the Australian Environment Minister, Robert Hill, has expressed Australia’s commitment to achieving the targets set out at Kyoto, he has said that the protocol will collapse without the support of the United States.

“Well, I don’t think you can have the Kyoto protocol without the United States…If the United States walks away from that then I think it is dead,” the environment minister told the Australian press.

Minister Hill is to visit the US in the coming weeks with the hopes of lobbying the Bush administration to reconsider, but his calls will most likely fall upon deaf ears.

The Australian government has for the time being agreed to continue to meet the commitments it made at Kyoto, but has backed the US’s position on the need for developing countries to combat global warning.

“We are continuing with our program to reduce them [greenhouse gas emissions] in Australia, but we also recognize, as the United States administration does, that you can’t have a comprehensive world-wide agreement on greenhouse gas emissions unless you get the developing countries involved,” Prime Minister John Howard said in an Australian radio interview.

Not so, said Gareth Walton, a climate campaigner with Greenpeace Australia. “The developing country argument is a smokescreen for countries to avoid their responsibilities.

“Developing countries have agreed to join the Protocol once developed countries, which are responsible for 80 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, take action first,” the environmentalist added.

The Australian government has yet to officially announce if it will also decide not to ratify the treaty.

For the protocol to come into force, it must be ratified by 55 nations. To date, 84 countries have signed the international treaty, but only 33 have ratified it.

“If the Australian government wants to display positive leadership on this issue, it should join the EU, Japan and New Zealand in committing to ratify by 2002, rather than trying to get the US back on board the climate talks so together they can weaken the Protocol,” Walton said.