Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says negotiating an agreement on climate change at the United Nations Climate Change (UNCC) conference in Bali next week will be a painstaking process.
"It'll take a lot of time and a lot of horse trading, a lot of negotiation and it's going to be tough," Mr Rudd said.
Delegates from 190 countries have already descended on the popular Indonesian island in preparation for next week's official efforts to nut out a "road map" for the second stage of the Kyoto protocol, which begins in 2012.
In the first official act of the newly elected Australian Government, Mr Rudd confirmed his commitment to address climate change concerns by signing the appropriate documents to ratify the Kyoto Protocol in Australia's capital city of Canberra on Monday December 3.
Delegates already in attendance at the UNCC conference in Bali broke into spontaneous applause when news of Australia's decision was announced.
The protocol, which will come into place 90 days after it is lodged with the UN, will commit Australia, as one of the richer nations, to reducing greenhouse gas emission levels by 8 per cent below 1990 levels before 2012.
If targets are not met, Australia will have to cut emissions by a further 30 per cent after 2012.
Australia's new Climate Change Minister Penny Wong says the decision sets Australia up for a leadership role at the conference.
"Ratifying the Kyoto Protocol puts Australia back on the map," she said on ABC. "The world now knows that this nation is prepared to do its bit and be part of the global solution to climate change.
"This gives us an impetus to go into the Bali conference to set that leadership role."
One of the first issues to be decided at the conference will be the promise to limit global warming to an average temperature increase of two degrees above pre-industrial levels. The level of cuts needed to meet that target will also be on the agenda, with estimates ranging from 50 to 80 per cent by 2050.
Climate change specialist Professor Will Steffen from the Australian National University said he will be watching proceedings in Bali with great interest as international negotiations were always "extremely difficult".
"Various players and various countries have different perspectives on the problems," he told The Epoch Times. "It is a challenge to come to a common consensus."
One of the great challenges facing delegates at the Bali conference will be to bring the big polluters in the developing world – India and China – to the negotiating table. Developing nations argue that they want to see more solid commitment from developed nations before they agree to any reduction in emissions. As a number of developed countries have not met their agreed targets, many developing nations are continuing to sit on the fence about a commitment.
Britain's climate change envoy John Ashton said climate change negotiations represent "the most difficult piece of diplomacy that humanity will ever attempt".
"If we want to achieve climate security, governments will need to invest more resources in the emerging techniques of soft power," he said in a written statement to the BBC.
"There is no backstop – the politics and diplomacy have to work."
Mr Ashton warned that it was not only international relations that would pose a challenge for governments. Increasingly complex domestic issues – some a direct result of climate change – must also be factored in.
"The first priority of any government is to provide the conditions necessary for security and prosperity in return for the taxes that citizens pay," he said.
"Climate change is potentially the most serious threat there has ever been to this most fundamental of social contracts."
While Mr Rudd will arrive in Bali next week with a comprehensive collection of his ministry, including Treasurer Wayne Swan, Environment Minister Peter Garrett and Climate Change Minister Penny Wong, he will be met with an equally strong contingent of domestic interest groups.
Included will be representatives from Australia's state and territory governments, along with six lobby groups – the National Farmers Federation, National Association of Forest Industries, Australian Industry Greenhouse Network, Clean Energy Council, Climate Action Network Australia and World Vision.
The size of the Australian contingent and the mix of business, environment and welfare groups highlight the complexity of pressures Mr Rudd's Government will face in negotiating Australia's position.
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