No, I have not appointed myself spokesperson for the planet. But I agree with John Quiggin (a political social scientist and also an Australian) at Crooked Timber, as well as at his own blog, that the recent government change in Australia was significant to producing a better-than-expected deal in Bali.
Until his [i.e. new Labor PM Kevin Rudd's] election, Australia, as the only other significant country not to ratify Kyoto, was Bush’s most important supporter. After the switch, Australia was able to pursue a negotiating strategy which sometimes seemed to accommodating to the US, but ultimately produced an excellent outcome.
Of course, there are also some losers, who did all they could to stop this happening, and failed. But they know who they are, and there’s no need to dwell on them today.
Indeed.
The linked posts (especially the one at C.T.) also have very interesting comment threads. Contributions in light of the discussions there are very much welcome here.
Um, John’s an economist:)
Seed planted by Alan — 17 December 2007 @ 03:59
It looks like Canada is now trying to take Australia’s place as a roadblock to environmental agreements. My apologies for the actions of my country!
Perhaps if our Green Party actually had a chance of getting some seats with its 5-10% of the vote share, things would be different around here.
Seed planted by Vasi — 17 December 2007 @ 19:40
Vasi, that is certainly the case! For more, I refer interested readers to some remarks I made at Crawl Across the Ocean.
Seed planted by MSS — 17 December 2007 @ 19:46
What is David Brooks talking about here?
“… [UK Tory leader David] Cameron describes a new global movement, with rising centre-right parties in Sweden, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, California and New York (he admires Schwarzenegger and Bloomberg)…”
- “The Conservative Revival,” New York Times (9 May 2008), http://tinyurl.com/4fuy6g.
Huh? Rising? Centre-right parties? Australia?
Unless the ÖVP is out of power federally and in every Land, I’m assuming Mr Brooks meant Austria…
Seed planted by Tom Round — 10 May 2008 @ 08:14