CANBERRA, Australia (Reuters) -- Australia's Prime Minister John Howard has called for an Asia-Pacific replacement to the Kyoto pact, naming an envoy to work with regional leaders on a new climate agreement ahead of a September summit in Sydney.
But critics said Howard, a vocal critic of the Kyoto Protocol and its European nation signatories, was trying to build a "polluters club" to deflect attention from Australia's position as one of the world's biggest per capita Greenhouse emitters.
Howard said the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, to be held in Sydney, would be an historic opportunity to build consensus on a post-Kyoto deal embracing developed economies and emerging heavyweights India and China.
"The Kyoto model -- top-down, prescriptive, legalistic and Euro-centric -- simply won't fly in a rising Asia-Pacific region," Howard told an Asia Society Australasia dinner.
"No country, least of all rising economic superpowers like China and India, is going to embrace measures that imperil these objectives. The post-Kyoto template needs to be more bottom-up, cooperative and flexible."
Howard, lagging in polls and facing an election later this year, is under pressure to do more on climate change, with around 80 percent of voters expressing concern about global warming.
A "Sydney declaration" beside APEC leaders including U.S. President George W. Bush, China's President Hu Jintao, Japan's Shinzo Abe and India's Manmohan Singh, would bolster Howard's green credentials ahead of an election expected later this year.
Howard asked Australia's top diplomat, Foreign Affairs Secretary Michael L'Estrange, to work with regional leaders on a regional alliance to tackle climate change.
Canada, which like Australia relies on Greenhouse-heavy commodity exports, had agreed to work with Canberra on a post-Kyoto APEC deal, The Australian newspaper said on Thursday.
Howard, a close U.S. ally and Bush confidante, had talked to his Canadian counterpart Stephen Harper before backing Bush's opposition to firm Greenhouse Gas reduction targets in the leadup to this week's G8 summit in Germany.
L'Estrange would float Kyoto alternatives such as a "pledge and review" framework allowing flexibility on climate objectives.
Countries could agree to firm emissions targets and carbon taxes, or simply agree to introduce Greenhouse-friendly technology and review the results later.
Australian Greens Senator Bob Brown said Howard was fishing for support in his Kyoto opposition and the belief that ratifying the pact would cost jobs in Australia's energy-reliant economy.
"John Howard is going for a polluters club here, with the rules being you set your own limits of pollution, and there'll be nobody else to point a finger at you," Brown told local radio.
Opposition Labor Party environment spokesman Peter Garrett said Howard was trying to paint himself as a leader on climate change ahead of an election expected around November.
"A set of convoluted ideas it seems, but without any real commitments for the reduction of Greenhouse Gas emissions which is so sorely needed at this point in time," Garrett said.
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