Australia was on Saturday host to numerous protests on climate change, totaling over 150,000 people who took to the streets, news agencies report. Brisbane and Sydney were among the cities with most citizens on their streets. The protesters carried placards and chanted slogans, urging the government to adopt measures that would ensure the decrease of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the country.

Currently, Australia is the world's 16th largest carbon producer, with a per capita emission level about five times that of China. Additionally, until recently, it was not a part of the Kyoto Protocol, alongside the United States and China. With the election of Kevin Rudd as the nation's Prime Minister, concerned citizens and environmental groups hope to see a drastic change in Australia's policy. The newly-elected official already decided to join the Protocol, which virtually left the US as the only developed country not to be a part of the treaty.

The national government is currently hesitating about what sets of measures to adopt, seeing how the industry is threatening to move its business elsewhere, while the people announced their intention to protest even more, if sustainable development plans for renewable energy were not set in place. The coal industry, along with concrete manufacturers, is pushing for little restrictions to the amounts of carbon dioxide they emit. 

Sadly, Penny Wong, Climate Change minister and Wayne Swan, treasurer, announced last month that they were considering implementing soft carbon limits, so as to appease the industry. However, Australian citizens, who gave Rudd office by a landslide, said they would have none of it, and that the environment and sustainable development should be the government's main priority, instead of the interests of electricity giants, which relied heavily on coal for their production processes.

The new set of measures is programmed to come out as early as this month, so further protests are scheduled to take place on December 6th, in Canberra. Environmentalist groups, which annually organize the Walk Against Warming, said that this year's number of participants showed that the citizens of the nation continued to be still very much concerned with the environment, and that they did not wish to prosper over the sinking of other countries. Literally.