Australian Politician, Liberal Party. Prime Minister from March 1996 to November 2007.
Resisted lobbying by Liberal politicians around Australia’s negotiating position for the Kyoto Protocol [link]
Resisted entire Cabinet on the question of a domestic emissions trading scheme (2003 and at other times)
Christoff in Policy Autism (2005) says – “at the same time… Howard ‘dominates government to a degree unmatched since Menzies’.” citing Rob Chalmers, ‘Howard Runs One-Man Band Government’, Inside Canberra, 56, 337, (2003).
Announced on World Environment Day (June 5) 2002 that Australia would not ratify the Kyoto Protocol, despite having negotiated an extremely favourable deal.
As climate change moved up the political agenda in 2005-2007, attempted various rearguard actions, without success. Only the second Prime Minister to lose his seat at an election.
In November 2013 gave a speech at the Global Warming Policy Foundation stating he did not see anything damaging about greenhouse gas emissions- See Lenore Taylor’s piece for details – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/06/election-ploy-john-howard-climate
Also, this.
“In 2006 my government hit a ‘perfect storm’ on the issue. Drought had lingered for several years in many parts of eastern Australia, leading to severe restrictions on the daily use of water; not for the first or last time the bushfire season started early; the report by Sir Nicholas Stern hit the shelves, with the author himself visiting Australia, and lastly the former US vice president Al Gore released his movie An Inconvenient Truth. To put it bluntly ‘doing something’ about global warming gathered strong political momentum in Australia.”
See Toohey, B. 2007 The Lone Ranger
https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2007/april/1298352657/brian-toohey/lone-ranger
marchudson.net 