Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to advise the Senate that today Australia officially becomes part of the global solution on climate change. After so many years of neglect under the previous government, this nation is now sending a clear signal to the world that Australia is prepared to take responsibility on climate change. The Senate will recall that the first official act of the Rudd Labor government was to sign Australia’s instrument of ratification of the Kyoto protocol in December. Our ratification, as a nation, of the protocol comes into force today, 90 days after Australia deposited its instrument of ratification with the UNFCCC. Ratifying Kyoto put this nation back on the map, and it sends a signal that we clearly wish to be part of the solution. We send a signal that we are no longer part of the problem when it comes to climate change.

Kyoto does represent new opportunities for Australia. For the first time, we are a full negotiating partner in all key international fora. We have a seat at the table. Ratification of Kyoto will also facilitate new opportunities for Australian businesses to participate in global carbon markets, and the market in one of the key Kyoto tools—the clean development mechanism—was estimated to be over $5 billion in 2006.

The Rudd government is moving quickly to meet its Kyoto protocol obligations. Today the government is submitting Australia’s initial report under the Kyoto protocol to the United Nations. The UNFCCC deadline for this report is, in fact, March 2009. And I will speak more about that later.

I will comment on the report. The report demonstrates how this nation, first, is able to measure the reductions in emissions that are required under Kyoto. Obviously, measurement is a critical aspect of managing our emissions profile, and the report outlines the critical role of the national carbon accounting system in measuring emissions from land use, land use change and forestry. We have taken this a step further by announcing agreements to share this technology and system regionally and globally. The sharing of this technology is all part of this nation’s responsibility to help shape a global solution. This system will be an important element of the PNG-Australia forest carbon partnership, and the government has also announced a partnership with a range of international organisations on this front, including the Clinton Foundation, to take this issue global. This initial report, which I now table, outlines the measures that this government is taking to calculate our emissions levels.

I also indicate that I am tabling the Tracking to the Kyoto target 2007 report. This report, I am pleased to say, shows the latest projections of these emissions levels and indicates that Australia is now on track to meet its Kyoto emissions target—