Kyoto Useless for Australia :Howard

Kyoto useless for Australia: Howard
By Orietta GuerreraFebruary 17, 2005
http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Kyoto-useless-for-Australia-Howard/2005/02/16/1108500154770.html

The Kyoto Protocol would jeopardise Australian jobs and it was useless for Australia to join, Prime Minister John Howard said yesterday.
As the 141-nation agreement became international law - and in the face of intense pressure from environmentalists and the Opposition - Mr Howard told Parliament that it was not in Australia's interests to sign the treaty.
Until major emitters such as the US and China joined Kyoto - which aims to get the industrial world to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2 per cent by 2012 - it would be harmful for Australia to do so, he said.
"We would create a situation where countries such as China, India and Indonesia would not be subject to the same penalties and restrictions as would Australia," Mr Howard said. "And as a result we would run the risk of losing both industry and jobs to countries in that situation."
Labor interrupted Parliament yesterdayseeking to suspend standing orders and urgently debate the issue but the Government used its numbers to defeat the motion.
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The issue dominated question time, with Opposition Leader Kim Beazley directing a question to his environment spokesman, Anthony Albanese.
Asked why Australia should ratify, Mr Albanese said climate change was the No. 1 environmental challenge facing the world. "We should prioritise it for the sake not just of ourselves but of our children and grandchildren."
Senior Government ministers including Environment Minister Ian Campbell and Treasurer Peter Costello backed the continual refusal to ratify. Senator Campbell said Australia was one of five countries likely to achieve its Kyoto targets - 8 per cent above 1990 levels by 2012. He said Australia was on track to reduce greenhouse emissions by 30 per cent by 2050.
Mr Costello said: "We will play our part, but we will not be part of a one-sided agreement which would handicap the Australian economy."
Green groups protested on the steps of Victorian Parliament yesterday, waving flags of the 141 countries that have signed.
Australian Conservation Foundation vice-president Peter Christoff said Australian businesses would miss out on clean energy investment markets established under the treaty. "We are also locked out of the international carbon trading market now coming into being," he said. "This will cost Australian industry over $1 billion per annum."
Australian Medical Association president Bill Glasson called on the Government to ratify in the interests of human health.