Kevin Rudd is a Prime Minister in a hurry and climate change is his first big target. He said on election night that he wanted to roll up his sleeves and get to work. Having the paperwork to start the process of ratifying the Kyoto Protocol ready for the Governor-General to sign with him at his swearing-in ceremony was a good signal he meant it.

In an interview yesterday with Cynthia Banham at the SMH, Rudd said he wants to remould Australian foreign policy, make our nation a global leader on climate change and "bridge the gap" on emissions between developed and developing nations. Rudd will also seek to use climate change as a way of improving Australia's relationship with developing nations such as Indonesia and will head to Bali next week to commence this challenging task.

The Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Yvo de Boer, today acknowledged just how big a challenge this will be, saying that developing nations (quite understandably) will give the eradication of poverty a much higher priority than cutting emissions.

He has appointed Senator Penny Wong as Minister for Climate Change and his principal negotiator in global talks - but by placing the Department of Climate Change within the portfolio of PM&C - Rudd has signalled that he will be very heavily involved in emissions policy.

Peter Garrett, despite being appointed Environment Minister, was sidelined further from the climate change debate when it was revealed that Treasurer Wayne Swan will take questions on Kyoto and climate change in the House during Question Time.