Remember how you felt in 2007 when Australia finally ratified the Kyoto Protocol and joined international efforts to tackle climate change?
At last we would be helping to tackle increasingly devastating climate impacts, especially for the world’s poorest and most vulnerable communities.
As hard as it is to believe, at this point the Australian government still hasn’t signed up to Kyoto phase two. A poll released this week by WWF showed strong voter support to sign.
Write to Greg Combet, Minister for Climate Change
The first phase of the Kyoto Protocol is about to come to end. But unlike other major parties to the agreement, Australia has not yet signed up to a second commitment period. This new phase is the crucial stepping stone to a comprehensive global climate treaty. If Australia was to backtrack on Kyoto it would harm progress towards achieving a global agreement.
Since 2007 we’ve seen countries as small as the Maldives and as large as China begin real efforts to cut greenhouse emissions and play their part towards ensuring a safe climate for the future. And at last year’s UN climate summit in Durban, governments agreed to begin negotiations on a new legally binding treaty to apply to all countries, to be finalised by 2015.
Australia’s wavering comes as an estimated 18.7 million people in the Sahel region of West Africa face severe food shortages – a dire situation, and consistent with what we’ve been told we can increasingly expect in our warming world.
Climate change needs a global solution. “Kyoto 2” does not commit Australia to anything more or less than we have already pledged. Signing up is simply agreeing to be bound by these pledges. Greg Hunt, the Opposition’s spokesperson on climate action, has just declared the Coalition’s support for a second commitment period. So what has the Government to lose?
Kyoto remains proof that international cooperation on climate change is possible. Its continuation is vital if the world is to take action on climate change to the next level.
Write to Greg Combet, Minister for Climate Change
Campaigning works. Thanks for taking action.
Oxfam Australia Campaigns Team.