CLIMATE TALK:

Reuters

State Minister of Environment Sarwono Kusumaatmadja addresses the third Conference of Parties on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Kyoto, Japan calling for participants to work together to produce a protocol which would help reduce gas emissions.

Sarwono said yesterday that since the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, five years ago, little progress has been made in this area.

He said the protocol should oblige signatory countries to abide by the agreement in Rio in which countries agreed to reduce gas emissions.

Indonesia is firmly dedicated to the 1992 Rio commitment of reducing gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2000.

During his five-minute speech, Sarwono said that as an archipelagic country, Indonesia has a strong interest in preserving a sound environment because it is already directly feeling the effects of climatic change occurring throughout the world. (prb)