Industrial Nations Agree Step to New Climate Pact
Date: 03-Sep-07
Country: AUSTRIA
Author: Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent
About 1,000 delegates at the Aug 27-31 UN talks set
greenhouse gas emissions cuts of between 25 and 40 percent below
1990 levels as a non-binding starting point for rich nations'
work on a new pact to extend the UN's Kyoto Protocol beyond
2012.
"These conclusions...indicate what industrialised countries
must do to show leadership," said Yvo de Boer, head of the UN
Climate Change Secretariat, welcoming a compromise deal on the
range of needed cuts.
"But more needs to be done by the global community," he told
a news conference at the end of the 158-nation talks. Many
countries want to broaden Kyoto to include targets for outsiders
such as the United States and developing nations.
Delegates agreed that the 25-40 percent range "provides
useful initial parameters for the overall level of ambition of
further emissions reductions".
It fell short of calls by the European Union and developing
nations for the range to be called a stronger "guide" for future
work. Pacific Island states said that even stiffer cuts may be
needed to avert rising seas that could wash them off the map.
Nations including Russia, Japan and Canada had objected to
the idea of a "guide", reckoning it might end up binding them to
make sweeping economic shifts away from fossil fuels, widely
seen as a main cause of global warming.
Delegates in the Vienna conference hall applauded for 10
seconds after adopting the compromise text by consensus.
STARTING POINT
"This is a small step," Artur Runge-Metzger, head of the EU
Commission delegation, told Reuters. "We wanted bigger steps.
But I think the 25-40 percent will be viewed as a starting
point, an anchor for further work."
The UN's climate panel said in a study in May 2007 that
rich nations would have to cut emissions by between 25 and 40
percent to help avert the worst impacts of climate change from
droughts, storms, heatwaves and rising seas.
"The process is moving along," said Leon Charles from
Grenada, who chaired the final session. "By and large we have
achieved our objectives".
De Boer said that the decisions might help environment
ministers who will meet in Bali, Indonesia, in December, to
agree to launch formal negotiations on a new global climate
treaty to be decided by the end of 2009.
"This meeting has put the Bali conference in the starting
blocks," de Boer said.
Environmentalists also hailed the conclusions as a step in
the right direction. "The road to Bali is clear but it's time to
switch gears," said Red Constantino of Greenpeace.
"We have a clear message from most governments that they
will take seriously" scientists' calls for deep cuts, said Hans
Verolme, climate expert of the WWF.
Kyoto binds 36 industrial nations to cut emissions of
greenhouse gases by at least 5 percent below 1990 levels by
2008-12 in a first bid to contain warming.
The United States has not ratified Kyoto, rating it too
costly and unfair for excluding 2012 goals for developing
states, and thus was not involved in Friday's session. President
George W. Bush has separately called a meeting of major emitters
in Washington on Sept. 27-28 to work out future cuts.
