Elsewhere in depressing but predictable climate change news, Australia rejected the Kyoto Protocol today, saying it would not ratify unless the U.S. did so as well, and unless developing nations were required to begin cutting their emissions. Taking a page from President Bush’s book, Prime Minister John Howard said that ratifying the protocol “would cost us jobs and damage our industry.” And Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane said he could not support the protocol as long as major developing-world polluters such as India and China were exempted from immediate emissions cuts. Despite pressure from Japan and the European Union, Australia has been cool toward Kyoto from the beginning, even though concessions won during treaty negotiations would have allowed the country — a big coal exporter — to actually increase its greenhouse gas emissions by 8 percent above 1990 levels. (Overall, the treaty commits industrialized nations to reduce emissions 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.)
