Warming
By Brian Kenety
BRUSSELS, Nov 8 (IPS) - European Union (EU) environment
ministers, meeting for a special ''climate change Council'' have
promised determined action to reduce ''greenhouse gas'' emissions
ahead of an international conference on climate change at The
Hague.
In December 1997, industrialised countries meeting in Japan set
down binding, quantitative obligations to reduce emissions of
greenhouse gases, which are believed to contribute to global
warming. The 'Kyoto Protocol' sets targets for industrialised
countries to reduce emissions to 1990 levels by 2008-2012.
For the EU as a whole, that would mean an eight percent cut.
Environment ministers who met here this week compared each EU
member state's position for the last time before leaving for The
Hague conference (Nov. 13-24), known as COP6 (the 6th Conference
of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change).
The EU is working towards having renewable energy make up 12
percent of energy consumption by 2010, in part by encouraging the
use of low- carbon fuels.
French Environment Minister Dominique Voynet, whose country holds
the EU's rotating presidency, said Tuesday that ministers would
not make any agreement that could ''endanger the ecological
efficiency'' of the Protocol, and that does not translate into a
''real lowering of carbon emissions''.
The international community has yet to define important details
of how the Protocol should be implemented in practice, in
particular on various mechanisms and a compliance regime.
Developing countries' expressed need for capacity building,
technology transfer and adaptation to the effects of climate
change and mitigation policies is also among the unfinished
business to be taken up at the conference.
The Council adopted a conclusion that said the EU would push for
ratification of the Protocol so that it could come into force in
2002; a standardised system for monitoring compliance
with the Protocol and for sanctions against offenders, who would
pay fines into a general fund; and the rapid implementation of
schemes to transfer ''clean technologies'' to developing
countries.
Countries have a certain degree of flexibility in how they make
and measure their emissions reductions. In particular, an
international ''emissions trading'' regime is envisioned that
would allow industrialised countries to buy and sell ''emissions
credits'' amongst themselves.
They will also be able to acquire ''emission reduction units'' by
financing certain kinds of projects in other developed countries
through a mechanism known as Joint Implementation. In
addition, a ''Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)'' for promoting
sustainable projects in developing countries would enable
industrialised nations to finance emissions-reduction projects in
developing countries and receive credit for doing so.
Although the EU is to meet its target by distributing different
rates among its member states, the Council stressed the Union's
determination that flexible mechanisms such as the CDM
complement, but not substitute for national efforts to reduce the
domestic level of greenhouse gas emissions.
In this context, the EU has proposed a 'concrete ceiling' on use
of the three mechanisms to ensure that a balance is achieved
between these and domestic action. This proposal would
allow industrialised countries to meet around half of their
emission reduction or limitation requirement through the
mechanisms and, in view of considerable uncertainty over their
scale and permanence, to limit the extent to which 'sinks' that
absorb carbon, such as forests, can be used by industrialised
countries to offset their emissions.
The United States is pushing for the liberal use of emissions
trading schemes, in particular the use of sinks, and the two are
unlikely to reach a consensus at COP6, say EU officials.
However, the EU said in a briefing paper this week that as
''industrialised countries emit most greenhouse gases'' they have
'' a responsibility to show leadership in tackling climate
change''.
No fewer than 55 Parties to the Protocol, accounting for at least
55 percent of the 1990 figure for total carbon-dioxide emissions,
are required to ratify it. Officials here say they will not
wait for the United States, but try to reach agreement with other
industrialised countries, including Japan, the Central and
Eastern European candidates for EU accession and Russia to
ratify the Protocol.
''We (the industrialised countries) created the problem, we
should take the initiative; that is the EU perspective,'' said
one official.
Several environmental pressure groups met with EU ministers
Tuesday and expressed general satisfaction with the EU position.
Martin Rocholl, Friends of the Earth-Europe (FoE) political co-
ordinator, told IPS that his organisation welcomed the Council's
stated determination to play a progressive role at COP6.
''However, on several issues, we are on alert and will watch very
closely. Among these issues is nuclear energy, which some
countries propose as a so-called Clean Development Mechanism for
which developed countries would get carbon credits - a completely
unacceptable position''.
Another key demand of FoE is to assure that the vast majority of
carbon-dioxide (CO2) reduction is done at home with energy
efficiency measures or the introduction of renewable
energies.
''We fear that the EU might give in to countries like the United
States, which wants to use all kinds of loopholes to sneak away
from a real reduction of CO2 emissions in their own country. This
is especially unacceptable, as we would miss enormous chances for
innovation and efficiency gains in our economies,'' he said.
FoE is mobilising thousands of people from all over Europe to
come to The Hague for a major action, building a dyke around the
conference centre, which they hope will send a strong message to
world leaders to take climate change seriously.
''People in Europe and other continents are already experiencing
the reality of global warming, as the latest disasters in England
have shown,'' said Rocholl. (END/IPS/EN/bk/da/00)
SOURCE: Inter Press Service (IPS)
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