Comment 22 by rolan :

Australia contributes a little over 1.3% of the worlds greenhouse emissions (though it has the highest per-capita emissions - largely due to the disproportionate size of the agriculture and resource industries).

It is also worth noting that the many countries use nuclear power which we don't. While I think that's a good thing from an environmental perspective burning brown coal instead is not helping our per capita emissions.

The reduction of Australia's emissions by 23% per annum by 2020 (estimated by the Government in the new multi-billion dollar tax plan) will not have a significant affect on global atmospheric CO2 concentrations.

I am being a bit disingenuous here. Of course it may give us the higher-moral-ground from which we can convince others to effect change - do-as-I-do and all that.

Thanks. I was just about to point that out :-). Various people in the climate negotiation sphere do say that our per capita emissions are thrown back at us when we argue for change. I was also going to point out that the impact of global warming could be higher on us than other countries. We don't really need more droughts. So we do need that change to occur.

Michael