Australia will do "no more and no less" than other nations to fight climate change, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Tuesday, as he defended the outcome of global talks in Copenhagen.
Rudd's centre-left government wants to introduce a carbon emissions trading scheme which will reduce the pollution responsible for global warming by between five and 25 percent of 2000 levels by 2020.
But following the global summit on climate change in the Danish capital, it will consider the efforts of other countries before setting the level within this range at which carbon emissions will be capped.
Asked whether Australia would consider a target above 25 percent, Rudd replied: "Absolutely not."
"And the reason is, as I have said consistently, that Australia will do no more and no less than the rest of the world," he told reporters.
The non-binding Copenhagen Accord committed nations to limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), but it failed to set targets for greenhouse gas emissions cuts.
Rudd said Australia's range of five to 25 percent carbon cuts was consistent with this aim, as he defended the outcome of the summit.
"The negotiations among many countries proceeded very effectively. And with various other countries, did not proceed effectively," he said.
"There were many countries in the Copenhagen negotiations who wanted to land a deal on climate change which was comprehensive. We had some resistance from various developing countries against that.
"The important thing, however, is that the alternatives at the end of the day were this — the complete collapse of negotiations, and no deal whatsoever, or the deal that we were able to deliver."
Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said the government had made its target range of proposed cuts clear.
"That is dependent on what the rest of the world is prepared to do and as we work over the coming weeks with other nations who are supporting the Copenhagen Accord, we will be considering very carefully what other nations put forward," she said.
Wong said the Copenhagen conference was a step forward because for the first time it involved developed and developing nations acting together on climate change.
But according to a transcript of Wong's comments made after the summit, the minister agreed that more could have been gleaned from the talks.
"Of course there's a lot to do, of course we would have wanted more," the senator told a media conference after the talks concluded.
"But this is a significant step and what is important now is pressing on, implementing this agreement, working with those countries who support action to get a legally binding outcome at the next conference."
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