Prime Minister John Howard and US President George W. Bush are the only leaders of major industrialised countries refusing to sign the 1997 treaty, which aims to limit the production of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

Labor's environment spokesman Anthony Albanese said evidence of climate change was building, with rising average global temperatures and the 10 hottest years on record occurring in the past 14 years.

He said Valentine's Day was the perfect time to recognise humans' relationship with the environment and adopt the UN treaty.

"It's timely that today, Valentine's Day, I introduce the Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change Bill, because as important as human relationships are, so too is our collective relationship with our natural environment," he told parliament.

But Environment Minister Ian Campbell dismissed the bill as a stunt and reaffirmed the government's stance that the Kyoto Protocol was ineffective and would damage Australia's economy.

"Just signing a Kyoto Protocol or pulling a postcard stunt about the Kyoto Protocol is no substitute for a policy," Campbell said.

"We need to have a clear enunciation of just what that scheme will cost the consumers of Australia."

Campbell said Australia's energy-efficient exporting industries would suffer under the protocol and described it as counter-productive to the cause of curtailing man-made climate change.

"Kyoto works against Australia's highly energy-efficient industries, exporting to the world," he said.

"We should have an international agreement that encourages a country like Australia to smelt aluminium here, because we can do it more efficiently than just about every country in the world," he said.

Labor's bill has little chance of success as Howard's conservative coalition holds an outright majority in parliament since winning a fourth term in office last October.

The Kyoto treaty commits industrialised countries to making targeted curbs in emissions of six greenhouse gases by 2008-2012. This carries a cost because their economies will have to improve fuel efficiency and convert to cleaner energy.

But the deal does not include fast-growing populous countries such as China, already the world's second biggest carbon dioxide polluter, and India and their absence is frequently cited by Australia and the United States as key reasons for their refusal to sign the pact.

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