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Bali - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has told world leaders in Bali that climate change is the defining challenge of this generation, and says Australia stands ready to respond to the problem.
He told delegates at the United Nations climate change conference in Bali today that Australia would commit to "real" and "robust" short and medium term targets to slash greenhouse gases, after the Garnaut review is finished next year.
Mr Rudd received enthusiastic applause as he was introduced at the high-level segment of the Bali talks, after earlier formally handing over the instrument of ratification of the Kyoto Protocol to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.
"I have done this because I believe that climate change is now one of the greatest moral and economic challenges of our time," he said.
"Australia now stands ready to assume its responsibility in responding to this challenge - both at home and in the negotiations that lie ahead across the community of nations."
Mr Rudd said his government was just 10 days old, but was "a government prepared to take on the challenge, do the hard work now and deliver a sustainable future".
Earlier, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono congratulated Mr Rudd for his "speedy ratification" of the Kyoto treaty, sparking applause.
Mr Rudd told the conference that tackling climate change would not be easy, but was vital to the planet's future.
"It will require tough choices, and some of these will come at a political price," he said.
"But unless we act, the long-term costs will threaten the security and stability of us all."
Mr Rudd told the conference Australia had already committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 60 per cent on 2000 levels by 2050.
He said the review by economist Ross Garnaut would drive Australia's decisions on short and medium term targets.
"They will be real targets," he said.
"They will be robust targets.
"They will be cognisant of the science and they will set the Australian economy firmly on the path to achieving our commitment to a 60 per cent reduction in emissions by 2050."
Negotiations are intensifying over a draft proposal at the UN conference which calls for developed nations to aim to reduce global emissions by 25 to 40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020.
Mr Rudd said the Bali conference "must agree to work towards a shared global emissions goal".
"A goal that, on the best advice available, recognises the core reality that we must avoid dangerous climate change," he added.
But the targets also needed to be backed by "sustained action", Mr Rudd said as he outlined Australia's plans to implement a comprehensive emissions trading scheme by 2010, and increase renewable energy to 20 per cent of national supply by 2020.
"For Australians, climate change is no longer a distant threat," he said.
"It is no longer a scientific theory, it's an emerging reality."
Both developing and developed nations needed to work to fight climate change, he said.
Australia would work to "build bridges between nations" as the world pursued a new global pact by the end of 2009, Mr Rudd said.
"We expect all developed countries to embrace a further set of binding emissions targets - and we need this meeting at Bali to map out the process and timeline for this to happen," he said.
"And we need developing countries at Bali to map out the process and timeline for this to happen."
The future approach must address critical challenges such as deforestation, he said.
"The community of nations must reach agreement. There is no plan B," he said.
"There is no other planet any of us can escape to. We only have this one."
Mr Rudd said future generations would judge nations harshly if they failed.
"But I am optimistic that with clarity of purpose, clear-sightedness, courage and commitment we can prevail," he said.
Mr Rudd also condemned yesterday's "obscene attacks" on UN offices in Algiers, extending the thoughts and prayers of Australians to the victims.
At least 26 people - including 11 United Nations employees - were killed in the double car bombing, claimed by al-Qaeda's Branch in the Islamic Maghreb. The toll is expected to rise.
- AAP
