Rudd urges US to ratify Kyoto accord on global warming

Australia’s new prime minister, Kevin Rudd, said Wednesday that the United States should follow his country’s lead and ratify the Kyoto Protocol on fighting global warming.

Rudd signed documents this week to formally adopt the international agreement, reversing a decade of resistance and leaving the United States as the only industrialized country to refuse its binding targets for greenhouse gas emissions.

“Our position vis-a-vis Kyoto is clear cut, and that is that all developed and developing countries need to be part of the global solution,” Rudd told the Southern Cross Broadcasting radio network.

“And therefore we do need to see the United States as a full ratification state when it comes to Kyoto.” Rudd, who plans to visit Washington by mid-2008 for talks with U.S. President George W. Bush, dodged the question when asked if he would urge Bush to ratify the Kyoto pact.

Rudd’s Labor Party swept to power in Nov. 24 elections, ending more than 11 years of conservative rule under former Prime Minister John Howard, a staunch Bush ally.

Signing the Kyoto documents was Rudd’s first official act, and the policy switch was greeted by applause at an international conference in Bali, Indonesia, that is mapping out the world’s next steps in fighting global warming. Rudd will lead Australia’s top delegation to the meeting next week.

He said he wants Australia - small by population but wealthy, developed, and with influence among security allies such as the United States and Britain as well as trade partners such as China and other Asian nations - to become a broker through “creative middle-power diplomacy.”

“We’ve had a bad record on climate change,” Rudd said. “It’s time to put that behind us. I believe that we now need to do whatever we can to bridge the gap between the developed and developing worlds, because right now the gap is huge.”

Sydney, Wednesday, AP