Twenty five years ago, on this day, April 29, 1998, Australian Environment Minister Robert HIll signed the Kyoto Protocol while in New York.
As distinct from ratifying it… Robert Hill in New York…
R Hill (Minister for the Environment),Hill signs historic agreement to fight global warming, media release, 29 April, 1998.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 368.8ppm. As of 2023 it is 420ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was that Australia had secured an absurdly sweet deal at Kyoto. The so-called reduction target meant it could increase its emissions to 112%, and 130% once a land clearing clause loophole was taken into account.
It wasn’t clear at this stage whether Australia would try to ratify the Kyoto Protocol – a federal election was due relatively soon. And so it was mostly harmless signing. So they did it. And not signing would have caused more trouble than it was worth.
What I think we can learn from this
You have to know the details of a process, so you don’t get over-excited about what (you want it to) mean.
What happened next
In September of 1998 it was leaked that the Cabinet had agreed that Australia would not ratify unless the US did. And the US was very unlikely to do that. In the end, in 2002, on Earth Day, because he has a sense of humour. Prime Minister John Howard, to no one’s great surprise, but many people’s shock and dismay, announced Australia would not, in fact, ratify Kyoto.
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.