A BENCHMARK of any deal in Copenhagen will be getting poor countries on board, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said shortly after arriving in Copenhagen.
Mr Rudd told the Australian media that while there was absolutely no guarantee of success at getting a global agreement, his aim in the days ahead was to work "as hard as possible to secure the best possible agreement for Australia, in Australia’s national interest".
"That means getting a genuine agreement between rich and poor countries to tackle climate change, for the first time in history," Mr Rudd said.
"It also must be an agreement which is the cheapest, the most effective, most pro-jobs agreement possible.
"So, I’ll be here in the days ahead working as hard as I absolutely can, throwing everything at it, trying to get the absolute best outcome for Australia’s national interest."
When questioned on the deadlock within the conference itself, Mr Rudd said there had been "a lot of sound and fury on the floor of the conference".
"And I think it’s likely that we’ll see further sound and fury in the period ahead.
"The key thing is that when you’ve got walkouts and threats of walkouts, lots of noise, lots of clatter - it’s trying to find a consensus up the middle of that.
"And I’ll be working very closely with the Danish Prime Minister later this evening on how we try and forge a consensus through this.
"As I said, there’s absolutely no guarantee of success. But my job, as Prime Minister of Australia - and Australia as a member of the international community - is to put our shoulder to the wheel, and try and get a good agreement for Australia’s national interest, and for the world.
"For Australia’s national interest to be served, we need a strong agreement - for the first time in history - between rich and poor countries.
"In the past, this has primarily been a debate about what happens with the developed world.
"We know that the developed world is responsible for the largest slice of accumulated greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere. But why is this now important? Because for the first time in history, there is the prospect of an agreement which brings in the developing countries, for the first time.
"The biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in the future will be the major developing countries, led by China. China already - as of today - is the world’s largest polluter. It’s now bigger than the United States.
"The absolute core benchmark for success is for the first time in history to have an agreement between the rich and poor countries, the developed and the developing countries, on this common challenge for us all.
"If we don’t do that, we’re not dealing with the totality of the problem, and we’ll not be serving the next generations of Australians, our environment, our economic interests, or our kids."
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