From The Campaign Trail

We all know the story of young Alexander at the parade. He marches with his class and his parents are so proud because Alexander is the only one in step. So it was with Alexander Downer's embarrassing speech this week to the High Level UN Event on Climate Change. Downer urged all participants to go beyond Kyoto. Not bad for a country that never signed! Then he repeated the APEC mantra of merely aspirational global emissions targets. The Howard Government pretends Australia is a key player in global efforts to combat climate change. In reality we are seen internationally as retarding progress on climate change - first through our ill-considered refusal to acknowledge the problem and second through our failure to participate in the Kyoto Treaty. That means we are now sidelined in international forums. That will change with a Labor government. You can see what the rest of the world is doing at http://www.un.org/climatechange/2007highlevel