Montreal (Platts)--11Mar2008

Australia became a party to the Kyoto Protocol Tuesday when the
ratification of the Protocol by new Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd came
into force.

"From today, Australia is officially part of the global solution on
climate change," said Penny Wong, Minister for Climate Change and Water.
Australia has been a Party to the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change since it was signed in 1992. The Kyoto Protocol was created at
the third Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC in 1997.

The government released Australia's Initial Report under the Kyoto
Protocol Tuesday, one year earlier than the UNFCCC's deadline required,
according to a departmental communique.

The report sets out to demonstrate how Australia is able to measure the
reductions in emissions that are required under Kyoto, the statement
continued.

"After so many years of neglect under the previous government, we are
sending a clear signal to the world that Australia is taking responsibility on
climate change," Wong said, pointing to the 'three pillars' of Australia's
commitment to climate change: helping to find an international solution;
reducing Australia's emissions and "adapting to the climate change we cannot
avoid."

The Rudd government released a report in February, Tracking Kyoto, which
demonstrated how the country was on target to reach its Kyoto target of 8%
above 1990 levels by 2012.

On the same day, Greenfleet became the first not-for-profit offset
provider to be approved by the Australian Government under its Greenhouse
Friendly program that uses forest sinks to generate offsets that must be
planted by human induced methods specifically to sequester carbon and create
"additional" greenhouse gas reductions.

Greenfleet's mission is to help businesses and individuals offset vehicle
emissions by planting native trees to absorb carbon emissions.