Australia had always shied away from ratifying the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, due to the non-inclusion of target setting on China and India. This was a position on which it had the prime support of the US Administration under George Bush (who at many points professed not to believe in global warming). It is only when the Australian people voted out John Howard and brought in the liberal party under Kevin Rudd that Australia has finally reversed course and ratified the Kyoto Protocol. In a speech at the Bali conference, the Aussie Prime Minister accepted that richer countries have to take on the responsibility of lending support to the poorer countries in form of financing and technical help:
Australia recognizes the particular responsibility of developed countries to assist developing countries,’ Rudd told the United Nations-sponsored climate change conference in Bali, Indonesia. “In the form of technology transfer, in the form of financial incentives and in the form of support for adaptation. None of us can do it alone.”
We expect all developed countries to embrace a further set of binding emissions targets and we need this meeting at Bali to map out a process and timeline for this to happen,” Rudd said, according to speech notes. “We need developing countries to play their part – with specific commitments for action.”
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