ABSTRACT
In 1997, during the Third Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change at Kyoto, Australia exposed a face to the world which few might have expected to see. In earlier global forums it had professed strong support for international environmental regimes, including on global warming. Here, its representatives claimed that it was unfair and unjust for Australia, whose economy depends so much on the use and export of fossil fuels, to reduce that national dependency. They argued against uniform global reduction targets and demanded significant concessions to permit Australia to increase its greenhouse gas emissions over the coming 15 years by continuing with its fossil-fuel-intensive resource development programme. Australia threatened to withdraw from the Convention if these demands were not met. In the Kyoto Protocol, most developed nations finally agreed to mandated cuts to emissions averaging 5 percent from 1990 levels by 2010. Australia secured agreement to an 8 percent increase in its emissions over the next two decades from nations wishing to avoid destabilization of the Convention by its possible secession (see Christoff, 1998b).
