Prime Minister John Howard of Australia has gone down to electoral defeat [ark], and his successor Kevin Rudd has committed to ratifying Kyoto during the campaign. This is great news for the Kyoto process [ark] as only the United States continues to stand alone outside of the process. The importance of getting Kyoto fully ratified lies not in its rather meager goals, but rather in legitimizing the structures it has established in order to allow for their tightening to include all nations embracing mandatory emissions reductions based upon their historical, current and trending contribution to the problem. Does anyone know whether it would be possible for Australia to get Kyoto ratified prior to the Bali meetings in two weeks? Is it worth an alert asking them too? It would certainly increase momentum for a successor deal. There is perhaps an opportunity to also revist the horrendous Tasmania pulp mill [search] approval given by the previous government.