Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has ratified the Kyoto Protocol and the Herald Sun's Andrew Bolt is not pleased.
With his typical scaremongering style he trumpets that the Rudd Government has given away Australian taxpayers' money.
"THE instant Kevin Rudd signed the paper on Monday to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, he signed away $150 million of your money.
Or possibly as much as $2.5 billion, if reported leaks from senior government figures are right.
If that's what we lost on just day one of our new Kyoto future, imagine what this will cost us in the years ahead. Apart from our sanity, I mean."
Andrew Bolt's Sun Herald blog last Wednesday:
Andrew is having a lend of his readers on this issue, because Australia cannot be forced to pay over cash or have money fines imposed for any non-compliance with regard to greenhouse gas emission targets set under the Kyoto Protocol up to 2012.
According to compliance provisions of the UN Kyoto Protocol, it will have its targets increased after this if it fails to meet present target commitments.
"In the case of the enforcement branch, each type of non-compliance requires a specific course of action. For instance, where the enforcement branch has determined that the emissions of a Party have exceeded its assigned amount, it must declare that that Party is in non-compliance and require the Party to make up the difference between its emissions and its assigned amount during the second commitment period, plus an additional deduction of 30%. In addition, it shall require the Party to submit a compliance action plan and suspend the eligibility of the Party to make transfers under emissions trading until the Party is reinstated."
If Australia wants to make up the difference in its target shortfall or reduce any penalty target increase for the next commitment period it can of course purchase carbon credits from other member states before 2012.
This would be an entirely voluntary decision.
Andrew Bolt may be the most talked about journalist in Australia according to his home newspaper the Herald Sun, but it is for all the wrong reasons. His work belongs in the penny dreadfuls.
Kyoto Protocol document:
Kyoto Protocol member compliance:
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