By Gustavo Capdevila
GENEVA, Sep 5 (IPS) - An international conference on the
mechanisms needed to reduce greenhouse gases, which cause global
warming, is set to begin next week in the French city of Lyon,
and the industrialised North will be the principal target of
debate.
The international community has identified gas emissions as a
cause of climate change because they elevate the earth's
temperatures, and has also agreed on the necessary steps to
reduce these gases, but must still obtain practical commitments
from industrialised nations.
The fundamental issue at the Lyon meeting, in preparation for the
November conference at The Hague, consists of winning a
commitment from the world's wealthier nations, explained
Michael Zammit Cutajar, executive secretary of the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Without this sort of guarantee from the countries of the North,
especially from the United States, the Kyoto Protocol, adopted in
1997 to establish the rules of the game for mitigating climate
change, will not enter into effect, Zammit pointed out.
The Kyoto Protocol requires the ratification of at least 55 of
the countries that signed the Convention, including the
industrialised countries of the Organisation of Economic Co-
operation and Development (OECD) and transitional economies,
which in 1990 accounted for at least 55 percent of carbon dioxide
emissions.
In the period 2008 to 2012, this bloc of countries must cut
greenhouse gas emissions by an average of five percent from their
1990 levels. But industrialised nations face the issues of high
economic costs and political resistance to change.
In the long term, the decision to cut emissions means changes in
the models of production and consumption, as well as lifestyle
modifications. Over the last 200 years, these models of
economic behaviour created the climate change problem, Zammit
told the media Tuesday in Geneva.
Greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide, are released into the
atmosphere when fossil fuels are burned, including petroleum,
coal and gasoline, primarily by vehicles and factories.
The rich nations of the world can overcome the problem of gas
reduction through the purchase of emissions credits, a mechanism
established by the Kyoto Protocol.
But poor nations, especially those characterised as least
developed countries (LDCs), need the assistance of the
international community in building their capacity to handle the
climate change problem.
The developing countries have accepted the obligations
established by the Convention, which does not establish a limit
for their greenhouse gas emissions.
The multilateral instrument forces them to recognise the gravity
of climate change and to implement national programmes and
co-operate in the exchange of information on the issue.
But last weekend the Group of 77 plus China, made up of
developing nations, stressed their firm opposition to new
commitments.
In the future, obviously, they will have to accept them, but
developing countries do not agree to discuss commitments in the
current negotiations, said Zammit.
Another side of the issue is that oil producing countries are
concerned that measures intended to reduce energy use in the
industrialised world, their principal market, will hurt their
petroleum exports.
These countries fear the petroleum market will suffer as a result
of policies to fight climate change. They demand international
recognition of the problem and some sort of response from the
industrialised countries.
This is one of the most critical aspects of the negotiations,
said Zammit, and in the practical sphere, one of the most heated
issues.
The Lyon conference, to be inaugurated Monday by French Prime
Minister Lionel Jospin, will include the participation of Dutch
Environmental Minister, Jan Pronk, who will preside at the
November meeting at The Hague.
Zammit interpreted the Jospin invitation to hold the talks in
Lyon as proof of the concern of France and other European
governments about the consequences of the storms last December
that devastated several regions and flattened vast areas of
forests, phenomena related to climate change.
An increase in the frequency of extreme weather events will be
one of the effects of climate destabilisation, predicted the
official.
Other results of climate destabilisation can be seen in the
spread of insect-borne diseases due to rising average
temperatures, and in rising sea levels, which affect millions of
people living on islands, coasts and deltas, according to Zammit.
(END/IPS/tra-so/pc/mj/ld/00)
SOURCE: Inter Press Service (IPS)
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