Australia's Garrett makes Kyoto a priority

By James Grubel

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia's Labor Party would urgently sign the Kyoto Protocol to curb global warming and overturn the country's decade of opposition to the pact if it wins elections, Labor's environment spokesman Peter Garrett said.

The move would further isolate the United States ahead of December's international climate meeting in Bali, which will discuss a new framework for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions beyond 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol expires.

Garrett, a former rock star, is set to become Australia's Environment Minister if Labor wins power at elections due within weeks. He said Australia would then send a signal that it wanted to play a key role in post-Kyoto negotiations.

"We certainly can ratify as a first action," Garrett told Reuters in an interview on Monday. "We're certainly committed to immediately ratifying the protocol.

Published opinion polls show the centre-left Labor Party has a commanding lead and is well placed to defeat conservative Prime Minister John Howard, who has been in power 11 years, at elections expected to be held in November or early December.

Both Australia and the United States have refused to ratify the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which sets binding limits on carbon emissions, blamed for global warming, in 35 developed nations.

Howard's government has said signing the Kyoto Protocol would unfairly hurt Australia's economy and status as the world's biggest coal exporter, while major emitters like China and India were not included.

Garrett said the Bali conference was a "turning-point meeting", and Australia needed to ensure it had full voting rights at the negotiations, which it would only have if it was part of the Kyoto pact.