Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Contributors
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Part 1 The Foreign Policy Scene
- Part 2 Relationships
- Part 3 Issues
- 9 Security, Defence, and Terrorism
- 10 Australia and the Global Economy
- 11 Pragmatism, Prosperity, and Environmental Challenges in Australia’s Foreign Policy
- 12 Australia and International Human Rights
- Part 4 Foreign Policy in the Political Process
- Survey Sources
- References
- Index
11 - Pragmatism, Prosperity, and Environmental Challenges in Australia’s Foreign Policy
from Part 3 - Issues
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 May 2024
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Contributors
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Part 1 The Foreign Policy Scene
- Part 2 Relationships
- Part 3 Issues
- 9 Security, Defence, and Terrorism
- 10 Australia and the Global Economy
- 11 Pragmatism, Prosperity, and Environmental Challenges in Australia’s Foreign Policy
- 12 Australia and International Human Rights
- Part 4 Foreign Policy in the Political Process
- Survey Sources
- References
- Index
Summary
In conventional institutional terms, Australia’s role in world environmental affairs is the product of its foreign policy on regional and global environmental issues and its domestic implementation of formal treaty obligations and other commitments. Australia’s ecological profile provides good reason for governments of whatever political hue to take a keen interest in international negotiations to manage transboundary and global pollution, protect the world’s species and ecosystems, and advance the cause of sustainable development. Australia has one of the world’s most variable climates and is, with the exception of the Antarctic, the world’s driest continent. As the drought conditions that beset the country in the first half of the period under review demonstrate, the country is susceptible to water stress. Australia is one of the few industrialised countries that suffers from severe desertification, and it is the only developed country among the ten in the world that qualify as mega-diverse in their fauna and flora. As a country ‘girt by sea’, protecting the oceans from pollution and resources therein from over-exploitation is a key policy objective.
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- Australia in World Affairs 2001–2005Trading on Alliance Security, pp. 180 - 193Publisher: Cambridge University PressFirst published in: 2024