Rudd personally committed himself to international action on climate change in the lead-up to the Copenhagen Summit in December 2009 . Ahead of the summit , he convened a meeting of leaders at the 2009 APEC conference in Singapore which brought together the leaders of China , the United States , Japan and Denmark for the first time to discuss their respective positions . Rudd announced financial help for small island states affected by climate change at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Trinidad and Tobago in 2009 and used the meeting to rally support for the Copenhagen summit . Rudd played a key role in Copenhagen in delivering an accord despite the wide divergence of views among advanced and emerging economies . Gordon Brown , the then-prime minister of the United Kingdom , said of Rudd at Copenhagen : " Kevin stood up to those who wanted to say ' no ' on climate change ... The fact we got a Copenhagen declaration which has now led to the next stage ... is in no small measure due to him . " However , the perceived weakness of the Copenhagen accord in setting binding targets impacted upon the momentum towards an emissions trading scheme at home . Rudd reflected later that " we all failed ... though not for want of effort from many of us . " As the parliament 's first order of business , on 13 February 2008 , Rudd gave an National Apology to Indigenous Australians for the '' stolen generations '' . The apology , for the policies of successive parliaments and governments , passed unanimously as a motion by both houses of parliament . Rudd pledged the government to bridging the gap between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australian health , education and living conditions , and in a way that respects their rights to self-determination . During meetings held in December 2007 and March 2008 the Council of Australian Governments ( COAG ) adopted six targets to improve the wellbeing of Indigenous Australians over the next five to twenty years . As of 2016 , there have been eight Closing the Gap Reports presented to Parliament , providing data in areas that previously had none and updates on progress
APEC conference
APEC Singapore 2009
Kevin Rudd