APEC Leaders to Sign Climate Change Pact at Summit
Date: 10-Sep-07
Country: AUSTRALIA
Author: Richard Pullin
The 21 leaders of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation
(APEC) forum began meeting behind a tight security cordon, as
thousands of protesters marched through the centre of Sydney
against US President George W. Bush, the Iraq war, global
warming and a potpourri of other causes.
The so-called "Sydney Declaration" on climate change was to
be signed on the first day of the two-day summit to accommodate
Bush, who heads back to Washington on Saturday night to prepare
for a crucial report on the Iraq war.
Bush has had a whirlwind round of meetings with other
leaders on his four-day visit to Sydney, including Chinese
President Hu Jintao, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Japanese
premier Shinzo Abe, Australia's John Howard and leaders of
Southeast Asian countries.
On Saturday, he met Abe and Howard for a trilateral summit
that had been expected to publicly urge China to be more
transparent about its military build-up.
But a senior Japanese government official said the three
leaders had agreed to deal "constructively" with Beijing, which
had cast a wary eye on the meeting, fearing it could turn into
an alliance aimed at containing China.
The official said details of the talks would not be
disclosed and stressed there were no plans at present to make
the three-way talks a regular gathering.
"We cannot disclose details, but there was a common
understanding on the importance of dealing constructively with
China," the Japanese official said.
POST-KYOTO
Howard placed climate change at the top of the APEC agenda,
to the consternation of some members, in search of a consensus
on what should happen when the first phase of the Kyoto
Protocol, the main global treaty on climate change, runs out in
2012.
Asia-Pacific officials agreed on Friday to a draft climate
statement that reaffirms the United Nations convention as the
primary vehicle for fighting global warming, while setting
non-binding, "aspirational targets" for themselves to reduce
greenhouse gas reductions.
Some analysts saw it as too little, too late.
"The issue of climate change is so severe that aspirational
goals are too late," said Mark Diesendorf, senior lecturer at
the Institute of Environmental Studies at Australia's
University of New South Wales.
"Real goals and real targets are really needed and you
cannot reduce energy intensity by raising emissions and
lowering energy consumption."
The pact, however, does set the stage for the UN climate
convention's annual summit in Bali, Indonesia in December,
which is looking for a successor to the existing UN pact,
known as the Kyoto Protocol, due to expire in 2012.
Demonstrators, gathered about one kilometre (half a mile)
from Sydney's harbourside Opera House where the leaders were
meeting, faced a heavy police presence.
"We are here to tell APEC that we don't like what they've
got to say," said 23-year-old Cynthia Morgan.
Protests have so far been non-violent and even farcical.
About 50 people turned up in a city park on Friday to bare
their buttocks in a "21-bum salute" to Bush.
Earlier this week, a television comedy troupe, posing as
the Canadian delegation, drove their motorcade through numerous
checkpoints to within metres of Bush's hotel -- with one of
them made up to look like Osama bin Laden sitting in the back,
and the designation "Insecurity" written on their convention
passes.
Bush told reporters after meeting Abe on Saturday that a
video of bin Laden, coinciding with the sixth anniversary of
the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, underscored the need
to show resolve in Iraq.
"I found it interesting that on the tape, Iraq was
mentioned, which is a reminder that Iraq is a part of this war
against extremists," he added.
What the leaders will wear for the annual "class photo"
later on Saturday has been a closely guar
