UN meeting bogged down over emission cuts

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.