But in recent years, there has been increasing evidence of a link between global warming and increased amounts of carbon dioxide around the Earth.

A U.N. meeting is being held in Bali, Indonesia to launch negotiations for a world climate agreement to follow the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2010.

Australia, which had stood with the United States as the only major industrialized country to reject the Kyoto pact, reversed its decision this week and signed it.

The Australian delegation to the Bali meeting confirmed Thursday that Canberra also supports cutting greenhouse gas emissions by between 25 percent and 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.

The Bush administration’s global warming stance suffered another setback when the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Wednesday passed a bill calling for the United States to cut gas emissions by 70 percent by 2050 from electric power plants, manufacturing and transportation.

A new pact isn’t expected at the Bali meeting, but it is believed the conference will produce the groundwork for such an agreement. This would be an encouraging development in reducing greenhouse effects and fighting global warming.