Australia is ready to join a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol as the first commitment ends on December 31, 2012.
A second commitment period to restrain greenhouse gas emissions will begin on January 1, 2013.
The Kyoto Protocol was the first global treaty to set binding obligations on countries to cut emissions. Australia was one of the first countries in the world to sign the treaty in 2007.
Announcing details of the plan earlier today, the Minister for Climate Change Greg Combet, said that by joining a second commitment period Australian businesses have access to international credits under the Clean Development Mechanism.
All countries that are party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change are working towards a new global agreement that will have legally binding commitments for all major emitters.
This agreement – which will include China, the United States, the European Union, India, Japan, Brazil and South Korea – is to be finalised by 2015 and start in 2020.
Australia’s preparedness to join a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol at the UN climate change negotiations from November 26 to December 7 will be conditional on:
Continued progress in international negotiations towards the new 2015 agreement;
The second commitment period ending in 2020 in line with the start of the new agreement;
Access to the Kyoto market mechanisms, including the Clean Development Mechanism, from January 1, 2013;
The existing land sector rules continuing, providing opportunities to cut emissions through better land management, including under the Carbon Farming Initiative;
The rules applying to carryover of units from the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol being appropriate for Australia.
In Doha, Australia will commit to limiting its greenhouse gas emissions from 2013 to 2020 with a Kyoto target consistent with the bipartisan target of reducing emissions to five per cent below 2000 levels by 2020.
In no way does this rule out the option later of moving up Australia’s 2020 target range of 5 to 15 per cent, or 25 per cent, below 2000 levels if Australia’s target conditions relating to the extent of global action are met.
The intention to join a second commitment period does not constrain the role of the independent Climate Change Authority which will advise the government on a national target and carbon budgets for the emissions trading scheme by early 2014.
"As the world increases the extent of its action on climate change, Australia’s domestic scheme means that we have the ability to match that action," Combet said.
Australia joins 36 other countries in planning to take on a Kyoto target to restrain emissions between 2013 and 2020.
At last year’s UN negotiations in Durban, all countries decided that new global warming potential factors set out in the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change would be used to calculate emissions as part of the international accounting framework starting from 2013.
It is up to individual countries as to when these new values are applied domestically.
"Australia will apply the new values to determine liabilities under the carbon pricing mechanism and synthetic greenhouse gas arrangements from 2017-18, giving liable entities notice and time to prepare," Combet said.