Kyoto dreaming

Ratifying Kyoto has struck me, for some time as too little too late. It is a symbolic gesture, but hardly touches the challenges facing our planet. Still, I was excited that the symbolic gesture was taken.

But our new PM, Kevin Rudd has ramped up the process in two ways:

• He has declared that climate change will be the province of the Federal treasurer because it is as much an economic issue as it is environmental.
• He has highly unveiled an ambitious and activist role for uniting the world on climate change.

The excitement for me is that someone is actually looking outside the box, taking issues on from a different perspective. I like it at face value, now we need to see what this new government can deliver.

It won’t be quick, Rudd is an economic conservative, but for once I don’t see that as a bad thing. The good part is that he has actually slipped social issues back into the economic agenda. Monetarism seems to be a thing of the past, or I hope it is, in Australia at least.