Wanna Talk?

One environmental tidbit comes from Australia, which, after the U.S., ranks as the largest developed country not to sign on to the Kyoto climate treaty of a decade ago.  Now, in the aftermath of Friday’s IPCC report, there’s a comment from Australia’s Prime Minister John Howard.  Full text of his weekly radio address (U.S. Presidents don’t have a monopoly on weekly radio addresses, I guess) is HERE.

The operative paragraph, highlighted by the National Environmental Trust, a Washington environmental group, is:

"Market mechanisms, including carbon pricing will be integral to any long term response to climate change. The joint business government taskforce met last week to continue work on the design and nature of a workable emissions trading system."

The NET sees this as "Bush further isolated on global warming…." but "emissions trading" was a key part of the Clear Air Act of 1990, and it’s a key part of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, the business/environmental coalition we mentioned last month, whose members (GE, DuPont, Alcoa, BP, and others) say there’s potential profit in setting realistic goals for reduction in greenhouse gases.