Climate Change
By Ramesh Jaura
THE HAGUE, Nov 21 (IPS) - A new report is urging developing
countries not to hide behind industrial nations' failure to
fulfil their commitments under the United Nations Climate Change
Convention and its Kyoto Protocol.
Entitled 'On Track Towards Climate Protection', a position paper
distributed at the two-week long global climate change conference
in the capital of The Netherlands says, ''up to now, the
developing countries have only made limited efforts to become
involved in climate protection''.
On the one hand, this is because the industrialised nations'
leadership in climate protection is not very prominent, with the
result that the developing countries question why they need now
to become so strongly involved, says the paper prepared by the
German Agency for Technical Co-operation (GTZ).
A further constraint is the lack of human resources and - even
more decisively - the lack of institutional infrastructure.
This point was also stressed Monday by President Jacques Chirac
of France - which currently holds the six-monthly presidency of
the 15-nation European Union - in his address to the
ministerial segment of the sixth session of the conference of
parties (COP6) to the UN framework convention on climate change.
''If the South lacks the capacity to act, the North all too often
lacks the will,'' said the French president.
Chirac called upon the United States to cast their doubts and
hesitations. He pleaded for placing ''the creative power of our
modern economies at the service of the fight against climate
change, the new frontier of our development''.
''That would be a powerful gesture in the direction of the
countries of the South.'' The French president said. ''They
legitimately expect the developed countries, which alone emit
two-thirds of all greenhouse gases, to take the lead.''
It was premature to demand quantitative commitments from the
developing countries. But the time was coming when their level of
economic development will justify this, depending on
each nation's progress.
''Solidarity between North and South means that the North cuts
its emissions so that the South can develop while maintaining
control over the growth in its own emissions,'' explained
Chirac to representatives of more than 180 countries.
Says Holger Liptow, GTZ climate change programme project co-
ordinator: ''That the industrialised nations with 70 percent of
greenhouse gas emissions, carry the lion's share of
responsibility, remains undisputed.''
However, important arguments do exist as to why something needs
to happen now in the developing countries.
The paper lists three arguments: firstly, as a result of
population growth, its concentration in conurbations and economic
growth, energy demand is rising.
Secondly, the forests and in particular rainforests, are being
cleared; but precisely these represent important carbon dioxide
sinks, storing large amounts of carbon and releasing oxygen
into the atmosphere.
Thirdly, to be added to this are agriculture and mining, which
emit considerable amount of methane.
The paper pleads for industrial development in the developing
economies to take place according to the tenets of Agenda 21, the
United Nations programme of action for sustainable
development. Agenda 21 also calls for contributions to climate
protection corresponding to individual potentials.
The first step for each country is a national communication which
lists greenhouse gas sources and sinks. This inventory forms the
basis for determining options for reducing the emissions
of gases hazardous to inhabitants of the Planet Earth.
Says the GTZ paper: ''The developing countries are offered our
technical and financial support in this''.
Based in Eschborn, near Frankfurt, GTZ is a public-benefit
organisation primarily funded from public sources. Its experts
and local staff are engaged in some 140 countries of Africa,
Asia, Lain America and former central and eastern European states
According to the GTZ paper, the German government has been
supporting developing countries since 1993 - one year after the
United Nations climate change convention was agreed -
in their efforts towards climate protection.
In the first phase of the GTZ programme to implement the UNFCCC,
country studies were carried out in order to pave the way to
national communications in each of the participating
countries: China, Colombia, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines,
Tanzania, Thailand and Zambia.
''In some countries, for example in China, successes in the
reduction of greenhouse gases are already beginning to emerge as
a result of further support measures,'' says the GTZ.
In the second phase of the programme, partner organisations from
Colombia, India, Namibia, South Africa, Syria, Vietnam and Zambia
are participating.
In order to speed up the process as a whole, GTZ is supporting
several supra-regional measures parallel to the national
activities. These include the information carried out by the
Climate
Change Secretariat, based in Bonn, and by the partner countries,
international workshops and the North- South dialogue on climate
relevant technology transfer.
A case in point is an integrative concept developed by the GTZ
for meeting energy requirements for improving economic
development, strengthening efficiency in the energy sector,
reducing dependence on external energy sources and enhancing
natural resource efficiency. (END/IPS/EN/IP/raj/da/00)
SOURCE: Inter Press Service (IPS)
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