Speaking after the marathon final session of the Montreal conference, the Environment and Heritage Minister, Senator Ian Campbell, said the agreement heralded a new chapter in action on global climate change.
The Canadian Prime Minister appealed last week to the United States and Australia- which continued to reject the emissions cutbacks of the current Kyoto protocol- to have a "global conscience".
But his appeal appeared to be rebuffed by Australia and the US.
Senator Campbell had said Australia would not participate in a future agreement on climate change if the only option was a template based on the "short-term, national targets and timetables approach enshrined in the Kyoto Protocol".
But both countries have now agreed to join an exploratory global "dialogue" on future steps to combat climate change.
The agreement specifically rules out "negotiations leading to new commitments", but it has been welcomed by environmental groups.
The Montreal meeting was the first of the annual climate conferences since the Kyoto Protocol took effect last February, mandating specific cutbacks in emissions of carbon dioxide and five other gases by 2012 in 35 industrialised countries.
A broad scientific consensus agrees that these gases accumulating in the atmosphere, byproducts of automobile engines, power plants and other fossil fuel-burning industries, contributed significantly to the past century's global temperature rise of one degree Fahrenheit (0.7 degrees Celsius).
Continued warming is melting glaciers worldwide, shrinking the Arctic ice cap and heating up the oceans, raising sea levels, scientists say.
They predict major climate disruptions in coming decades.
When President George W Bush rejected Kyoto outright after taking office in 2001, he said its mandatory energy cuts would harm the US economy, and he complained that major developing countries were not covered.