UN meeting bogged down over emission cuts

Stevie Emilia, The Jakarta Post, New Delhi

The climate conference's Delhi Declaration has included a reference to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change and leans on the concerns of developing and least developed countries while accommodating the interests of developed countries.

The first draft of the declaration, prepared by the conference's president, T.R. Baalu, who is India's Minister of Environment, failed to mention the Kyoto Protocol, which binds industrialized countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, raising strong protests from developing countries.

Indonesian delegation member Agus Pratama Sari described the declaration as being "very weak", since it stipulates buzz words but has no real guidelines for its implementation.

"I say that this declaration is a missed opportunity because we're here to go for it only because we have to have a `declaration'," Agus, who is also the executive director of Pelangi, a research center focusing on forestry, energy and climate change issues, said on Friday on the sidelines of the final meetings to polish up the declaration.

The declaration reaffirms the developing countries' stance that developed countries should implement their commitments under the convention, including those relating to a provision of financial resources and technology transfer.

It also puts an emphasis on the fact that economic and social development and poverty eradication are the first and overriding priorities for developing countries.

In the Kyoto Protocol, the declaration does not move beyond the Marrakesh Accord, stating that "parties that have ratified the Kyoto Protocol should strongly urge parties that have not already done so to ratify the Kyoto Protocol in a timely manner".

Agus said the Indonesian delegation welcomed the declaration in its emphasis on adaptation "but what we really want to see is the part saying that adaptation cannot be separated from mitigation. The world community has an obligation to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Unfortunately, the declaration missed the link".

The Eighth Conference of the Parties (COP 8) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in New Delhi is likely to be the last conference before the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions from the developed world by 2012 to 5.2 percent below the 1990 level. But the United States -- the world's biggest polluter -- and Australia refused to ratify the accord.

In order to take effect, the protocol needs to be ratified by a sufficient number of developed countries to account for at least 55 percent of the developed countries' 1990 carbon emission level.

But during the 10-day conference at the Vigyan Bhawan Conference Center, developed countries -- including the U.S. delegations -- insisted on poor countries to step up efforts to cut emissions. Poor and developing countries, on the other hand, said they could not afford the cost of cutting emissions as they accounted for only a little pollution in the first place and had to struggle to feed their poor population.

"I think the declaration benefits developed countries most since it fails to clearly spell out the industrialized countries' obligations under the Kyoto Protocol and Convention. They must be very happy," Agus said.

He also regretted the absence of clear guidelines to meet the conference's target.

"The aim of this conference is to cut the dangerous concentration of greenhouse gases. Not only emissions but the concentration of them as well. Unfortunately, there is not one single guideline which clearly defines the conditions which threaten the climate. So how are we going to get on under way?" he said.

Agus also said the declaration should pinpoint countries that need to ratify immediately, such as the U.S., Australia, Canada and Russia.

The Climate Action Network (CAN), a leading non-governmental organization, said the wording in the Kyoto Protocol was merely "cosmetic". "The declaration fails to demand the immediate and unconditional ratification of the Kyoto Protocol by all countries, especially the world's biggest polluter, the United States," CAN said in a statement.