Australia Signs Kyoto Protocol

Australia has agreed to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, ending the country's long-standing opposition to the climate change pact.

The decision, which won the Australian delegate a standing ovation at the UN-led climate change talks in Bali, follows the appointment of new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd last week.

The conference has brought together 190 nations working towards a new global pact to fight climate change by 2009.

The Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the international Framework Convention on Climate Change aimed at reducing greenhouse gases.

The US is now the only major developed nation outside the pact.

By staff writer