Australia - International green activists called Monday for a boycott of US oil companies as long as the Bush administration refuses to ratify the Kyoto agreement. On the final day of the Global Greens conference in Canberra, delegates from 60 countries voted unanimously to campaign against companies they said helped sway the US against the Kyoto protocol. They also approved a world-first charter for green parties setting out environmental and social justice aims, and called for a World Environment Organisation to be established under the auspice of the United Nations to counter the World Trade Organisation. European Federation of Greens Parties president Pekka Haavisto of Finland said large corporations were making the running on US environmental policy.
Consumer choice is something everyone can do.
Australian Greens Senator Bob Brown said he would start by cutting up his Mobil service station card, issued to Australian members of parliament. Those who choose their grandchildren might take on one of the oil corporations, and they can do that by determining where they're going to fill up, or better still where they're going to walk. The conference said the US produced 25 per cent of the world's greenhouse gases and its withdrawal left the Kyoto protocol in doubt, since it requires support from 55 countries producing 55 per cent of greenhouse gases. The new Greens charter includes commitments to tackle political corruption, poor health and education in developing countries, global warming, human rights abuses and violence. Delegates said the World Trade Organisation should be subject to environmental controls imposed by the new World Environment Organisation, which would be backed up by an environmental court.