US says Kyoto no help to sinking isles
Date: 06-Mar-02
Country: AUSTRALIA
Author: Paul Tait
While low-lying Pacific nations like Tuvalu worry that they will soon disappear, chief U.S. climate negotiator Harlan Watson said yesterday it was likely regional volcanic instability was playing just as big a part as greenhouse gases.
Tuvalu Prime Minister Koloa Talake has foreshadowed a David and Goliath legal battle, saying his South Pacific nation of 10,000 people might sue the United States and Australia over their failure to ratify the 1997 Kyoto Treaty.
Watson argued that temperatures are rising inexorably and no amount of debate over Kyoto or the U.S. position would stop that.
"I would say to them that if they do have a problem with sea levels rising, Kyoto will not stop that," Watson said.
"The overall temperature of the Earth has been warming for the last 10,000-plus years...Kyoto will not slow that down one whit," he said in response to questions after a talk on Washington's position at the U.S. Consulate-General in Sydney.
Desperate Pacific states are seeking ways to fight back against rich polluting nations and multinational concerns whose emissions of greenhouse gases they say are wiping them out.
Tuvalu, a string of nine coral atolls five metres (16 feet) above sea level at their highest point, fears its last palm tree could sink beneath the Pacific within 50 years.
Other threatened Pacific islands include Kiribati, Niue and the Marshall Islands and the Maldives in the Indian Ocean.
POSSIBLE LAWSUIT
Tuvalu is threatening to sue Washington and its climate policy sidekick Australia over their refusal to back the Kyoto protocol, which set targets aimed at cutting greenhouse emissions blamed for global warming and rising sea levels.
While not expecting to win what would be lengthy and expensive legal cases, observers say that Tuvalu would at least draw global attention to its plight.
Watson said it would be impossible to prove that other factors were not involved in rising sea levels.
"The South Pacific is very volcanically unstable on the sea floor...so you have some natural subsidence occurring anyway. Islands are appearing and disappearing all the time," he said.
Environmental groups like Greenpeace argue that the Kyoto protocol might at least slow the pace of climate change so that low-lying nations might have more time to react and adapt.
Washington abandoned the Kyoto protocol last year, President George W. Bush arguing it would hurt the U.S. economy. Bush last month produced a voluntary plan aimed at encouraging industries to trim emissions.
Australia says Kyoto serves little purpose without the backing of the United States. Australia has also rebuffed Tuvalu calls to grant its citizens special visas in case they become "environmental refugees".