Negotiators see progress in the first days of COP6
By JOHN A. DILLON and
ROBERT E. SULLIVAN
© Earth Times News Service
THE HAGUE--After the first full day of negotiations,
delegates to the climate change
conference said they see some progress to break a logjam
between the United States and
Europe on key issues.
"We are making real progress," said one European. "The
Americans are taking a more realistic
position. They know we have to get something done."
The United States and European countries have been split over
strategies to prevent climate
change - such as the use of carbon "sinks" from reforestation
projects to meet greenhouse gas
reduction targets. Trees absorb carbon dioxide through
photosynthesis and Americans have been
arguing that nations should get credit for forest-planting
projects. Many in the EU contend,
however, that reforestation achieve only temporary reductions
in greenhouse gases and that
these carbon "sinks" should not be used as a way out of
emissions reduction requirements.
But there appeared to be some movement Tuesday toward
compromise. The US announced it
would accept a phase-in of carbon sink credits available to
industrial countries, a proposal US
officials hoped the EU would find more palatable. David B.
Sandalow, assistant secretary of
state for Oceans, Environment and Science, said the US has
been flexible on the sinks issue in
order to reach agreement with other countries.
"In order for us to reach a deal here at The Hague, parties
are going to have to show flexibility
on a number of issues," he said.
Many of the details—including specific carbon reduction
targets to be achieved through
sinks—remain to be worked out. "At this point, we're not
talking about any numbers," Sandalow
said.
Still, the movement was welcomed. Asked if the conference was
shaping up to be a showdown
between the US and the EU, a European delegate said: "It's not
quite that bad."
"The Americans are taking a more realistic position. They know
we have to get something done."
"We are not so polarized as before," said a diplomat from an
Atlantic Ocean coast country who,
like the others interviewed, spoke on the condition that his
name not be used.
The hopeful comments came after a day of bi-lateral
negotiations and a large EU coordinating
session. Delegates to the United Nations climate change
conference have broken into work
sessions and are trying to forge consensus on myriad technical
issues before the political
ministers take over next week.
The conference moved from Monday's speechmaking to lengthy
meetings where participants
churned through the technical minutiae of clean development
mechanisms, credits for carbon
sinks, clean technology transfers, reporting requirements and
other issues.
One European official said he did not think the gains
anticipated at the technical sessions could be
reversed by politicians when they meet next week. The
politicians are well-briefed this time
around, he said, noting a meeting of European environmental
ministers dedicated a full session to
the subject recently.
Michael Williams, spokesman for the United Nations Environment
Program, described the
various proceeding as nine separate "strands" that by the end
of the week should be woven into a
cohesive whole.
"A lot of the work is to take the unwieldy text and make it
coherent so the political people at least
have something to deal with, so at least the options are
clear," Williams said.
The world conference on climate change, formally known as the
Sixth Session of the Conference
of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate
Change, is supposed to hammer out
the details on how countries will meet greenhouse gas
reduction targets spelled out in the 1997
Kyoto Protocol. Michael Zammit Cutajar, the convention's
executive secretary has described the
two-week meeting as a make or break opportunity for the
climate change treaties.
But reaching consensus can be a mind-numbing process. As
delegates in one work group tried to
slog through emissions reporting and scientific review rules
required under the Kyoto pact, some
members voiced frustration with the chairman's suggestion that
they set up informal work groups
to work on relatively minor issues.
"We just cannot accept informal meetings outside of this
(session,)" the Saudi delegate said.
"These issues have to be discussed by the big group." Helen
Plume, the co-chairman of the group
of delegates working on the emissions reporting rules and
scientific review requirements, said the
delegates could not afford to get bogged down.
"We've been given a clear indication by the president of the
conference that we have to use all
the hours of the day to get an agreement by the end of the
week," Plume said.
Progress in the technical meetings—held throughout the
sprawling conference center—was
measured in words deleted or added, punctuation changed, or
brackets eliminated from text.
Typical was a meeting in which delegates discussed the adverse
effect of decreased oil use on
developing countries.
Officials from more than 100 countries hammered away at
erasing brackets—the parts in the
draft documents that are put in parenthesis because they
haven't been approved yet.
Zimbabwe, Saudi Arabia and Uganda presented the argument for
the developing countries, and
France and Canada argued adjectives and adverbs for the
developed nations.
Some agreement was reached on language for the final document.
Where disputes still existed,
meeting secretary Mohammad Reza Salamat of Iran told the
delegates to, in effect, go to their
rooms and come back with an agreed language. France and
Zimbabwe, in one case, were asked
to show up Wednesday with an agreed replacement for a bracket.
"We made very good progress," Salamat said at the end of the
meeting. "We were all very
encouraged. If we can continue with type of start this could
have impact on other issues.
Meeting chairman Bo Kjellen of Sweden said, "We agreed to a
lot of language. Many people
contributed to get rid of brackets.
"It was not the most difficult aspect," he said, but you have
to start somewhere." An NGO
observer said the meeting was typical of the debate for
previous Conference of the Parties
meetings: "The developed countries want to help the poor, but
do it for nothing, without spending
a cent, and the developing countries want everything."
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