CLASSIC CASE OF JOURNALISTIC BIAS ?

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Little support for PM's new Kyoto -

YVO DE BOER was, naturally, diplomatic. Asked what he thought of John Howard's vow to "push for a new Kyoto" at the global warming summit in Nairobi this week, the executive director of the United Nations climate change convention said Australia was "actively engaged" in general debates.
However, it joined the specific debate on the future role of industrialised nations in reducing greenhouse emissions "to the extent that it can as an observer".
While Australia is not the pariah it is sometimes said to be in climate-change talks, its decision not to ratify Kyoto in 2002 has almost certainly robbed it of influence, as the world prepares for a new agreement to reduce emissions after the the protocol expires in 2012.
Early indications from Nairobi are that if Mr Howard wants to rewrite the protocol from scratch, his plan will receive little attention or sympathy among the 6000 delegates.
Although the Environment Minister, Ian Campbell, has said there is "great enthusiasm" for the new Kyoto plan, no delegate who spoke to the Herald - including two members of the Australian delegation - understood what the phrase "new Kyoto" meant.
Mr Campbell was due to arrive in Nairobi yesterday.
Mr de Boer said "no Australian official has come up to me and said that they intend to return to the protocol".
The confusion exposes a vital issue at the conference, which enters its last and most important three days today.
Mr Campbell has said the protocol is flawed because it does not force fast-growing developing nations such as China and India to reduce their emissions.
Yet China, unlike Australia, has joined the global carbon market and is taking part in projects to reduce its emissions through the UN Clean Development Mechanism.
Virtually all countries agree that tackling escalating emissions from China - and those of the US, which did not ratify the protocol - is of huge importance to future agreements. Yet it is doubtful most believe the protocol must be re-created in order to address the problem.
The International Energy Agency's latest report, released last week, shows that China will overtake the US as the world's highest source of energy-related emissions by 2009 - 10 years earlier than the agency had initially forecast.
A central debate at the conference is how to further involve China and other developing nations in reducing emissions, without demanding they sacrifice the economic growth the West has already enjoyed