JP/4/MILAN

JP/4/MILAN

Hopes still high for Kyoto Protocol enactment

Stevie Emilia
The Jakarta Post
Milan, Italy

With developed countries reluctant to ratify an agreement to cut
carbon dioxide emissions, hopes still remained for their change
of heart as some 4,000 participants gathered here to put pressure
on the major states.

As Russia continues to delay its ratification and the United
States has openly refused to ratify, the treaty, known as the
Kyoto Protocol, is again at stake at the ongoing 9th Session of
the Conference of the Parties to the Climate Change Convention.

The Protocol is subject to ratification and will enter into
force 90 days after the date on which it is signed by no less
than 55 parties to the Convention -- including industrialized
countries that represent at least 55 percent of the total carbon
dioxide emissions in 1990.

According to Deputy Minister for Environmental Preservation
Liana Bratasida, who heads Indonesia's 18-member delegation to
the 12-day conference, the Protocol offers a common ground upon
which to deal with issues of climatic change, as it prepares
frameworks and policies to address the problems, which is
particularly relevant for an archipelagic country like Indonesia.

"Think about our small islands that will vanish if the climate
change gets worse," she told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Liana was preparing for the conference's two-day high-level
session, which starts on Wednesday at the Fiera Milano Congress
Center. Some 80 ministers from around the world are expected to
attend the session, to be addressed by Italian Prime Minister
Silvio Berlusconi.

"Around the world, people have started to experience the
impacts of global warming and if the Kyoto fails, in my opinion,
it will be a disaster," Liana said.

"And it's sad if (it fails) just because developed countries
refuse or delay the ratification -- all the efforts we've been
making for years will have been a waste of time and money."

The international community adopted the Climate Change
Convention during the 1992 Earth Summit, aiming to stabilize
atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases at safe levels.

In 1997, the Parties to the Convention agreed that by
consensus that developed countries should make legally binding
commitments to reduce their collective greenhouse gases by at
least 5 percent from that of the 1990 level by the 2008-2012
period.

Moekti H. Soejachmoen, deputy director of the Pelangi Research
Institute that focuses on energy, forestry, transportation, air
pollution and climate change issues, expressed his faith that the
Protocol will come into force after Russia's presidential
election next year.

If Russia fails to ratify the Protocol, Moekti said it would
be a great waste, since the Protocol was 90 percent ready and
only waiting to come into force.

She said she felt confident of the Protocol, as several clean
development mechanism (CDM) projects on energy had already
commenced and details on forestry CDM were being negotiated.

"So far, from the first day of the conference, from the
ongoing process, in seems many people still believe the Protocol
will eventually come into force," Moekti said.

Under the CDM of the Kyoto Protocol, developed countries are
allowed to meet part of their carbon emission reduction
commitments by carrying out reforestation and clean energy
projects in developing countries.

The mechanism has been designed with a dual goal: To achieve
cost-effective greenhouse gas mitigation for industrialized
countries and to promote sustainable development in developing
countries.

In return for investing in a sustainable development project
that cuts or avoids emissions in a developing country, companies
will earn certified emission reductions that developed countries
may use to meet their Kyoto commitments.