The Wire

What a difference a weekend makes. Labor has swept into office at the federal level, leaving the Lord mayor of Brisbane the highest Liberal office holder in the land. Rudd’s first task will be the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, the current global agreement in tackling climate change. He’s pledged to do this ahead of next month’s meeting in Bali, aimed at beginning the long process of implementing an agreement for 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol runs out. This agreement is seen as crucial if the globe is to begin to turn global emissions around by 2015. High emissions past this would see the planet tip beyond the point of no return on runaway global warming. We had a look at just what the Labor win means for climate change policy.