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also BBC Online, 28 Jul 05 EU pushes binding climate deal By Richard Black BBC Online, 28 Jul 05 Climate pact: For good or bad? Analysis By Richard Black World Wildlife Fund website 27 Jul 05 Expected US-brokered deal is no Kyoto alternative, says WWF Channel NewsAsia, 28 Jul 05 Singapore welcomes new Asia Pacific climate agreement By S Ramesh Singapore's Foreign Minister George Yeo has welcomed the Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development. He said any effective effort to ameliorate the problem of global climate change must involve the United States and Singapore saw the US leadership in this initiative as a positive development. Minister Yeo also noted that the new initiative seeks to complement and not replace the Kyoto Protocol. - CNA /ch World Wildlife Fund website 27 Jul 05 Expected US-brokered deal is no Kyoto alternative, says WWF Gland, Switzerland – A US-led Asia-Pacific regional energy pact, expected to be announced Thursday, offers no alternative to binding caps on pollution levels, says WWF. WWF warns that such a pact between the US, Australia, China, India and South Korea, which is designed to combat greenhouse gas emissions by developing environmentally friendly energy technology, cannot be seen as an alternative to the Kyoto Protocol. While WWF does encourage countries to work together on technological developments, it notes that the most effective way to reduce emissions globally is for the world to work together under one agreement rather than multiple plans and agreements. This is why the Kyoto Protocol, based on binding caps on emissions, is the first effective treaty to counteract global warming. There are 152 nations signed-up to the Protocol, excepting the US and Australia. “This seems to be another attempt by the Bush and Howard administrations to draw attention away from the fact that their countries emissions continue to rise,” said Jennifer Morgan, Director of WWF’s Global Climate Change Programme. “While the scale of the problem is immense and we need a variety of initiatives, none are a replacement for a multilateral regime, such as the Kyoto Protocol.” Under the Kyoto Protocol all countries are committed to reduced emissions. Those nations that produce the most pollution per head of population have to meet legally binding targets. “A deal on climate change that doesn’t limit pollution is the same as a peace plan that allows guns to be fired,” said Jennifer Morgan. “WWF calls for formal negotiations to reduce emissions at the next UN climate meeting in Montreal in November.” BBC Online, 28 Jul 05 Climate pact: For good or bad? Analysis By Richard Black BBC environment correspondent On the surface, there's no conflict between the new Asia-Pacific Partnership for Clean Development and Climate and the United Nations process which led to the Kyoto Protocol. So said Australia's Environment Minister Ian Campbell on Wednesday; so said US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick as he unveiled the pact in the Laotian capital, Vientiane. But as the principal architects of this new agreement, the US and Australia would say that, wouldn't they? Support has come, though, from other quarters, including Britain's environment minister Elliot Morley, who said: "I very much welcome the fact that we are seeing co-operation between some countries which are not signatories to Kyoto; I believe that all countries should sign up to Kyoto, but the fact that people are working together... I think that's a welcome step forward." In public at least, G8 leaders can say little else. The final communiqué from the G8 summit held in Scotland earlier this month made clear that clean technologies, and the transfer of these technologies to developing countries, would be key to controlling the rise in global greenhouse gas emissions - so, agreements like the Asia-Pacific deal can be seen simply as a route to achieving the Kyoto goals. Scepticism Why, then, are environmental groups so down on the pact - and are they right? "We should recognise this as a serious attempt to come up with something which is needed if the major developing nations are to be engaged," commented climate change specialist Jacqueline Karas, from Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, to the BBC News website. "The US has succeeded in engaging with three major developing economies in an effort to ensure they don't have to follow the same polluting path that industrialised countries followed in their development. "But I think at the same time it is fair to say it's a serious attempt by the US to deflect attention away from their own profligate emissions - to look at technology for tomorrow rather than at cuts for today - and it may also be timed to attempt to undermine negotiations in Montreal." In Montreal, at the end of November, delegates from nearly 200 nations will convene to try and work out a path beyond the Kyoto Protocol. The European Union believes such a treaty must include mandatory, binding cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. "[The Asia-Pacific pact] is no substitute for agreements like the Kyoto Protocol and we do not expect it to have a real impact on climate change," the European Commission's environment spokeswoman Barbara Helferrich told BBC News. "There will have to be binding global agreements, but on what scale and what basis is yet to be decided." This vision is the polar opposite of what's included in the Asia-Pacific agreement, which is entirely voluntary, entirely technology-based, with no binding targets for reducing emissions, no sanctions, no mechanisms, and as yet no funding. "What is different and what is disturbing about this initiative is the attempt to organise a bloc of developing countries, including China and India, around what's officially a complementary approach but which could be converted into an opposing bloc," Philip Clapp, president of the political lobby group the National Environmental Trust in Washington DC, said. Treading softly Looking ahead to the Montreal negotiations, he said: "I certainly wouldn't put it past the Bush administration to try to weaken Europe's position; and within Europe now, there are clearly questions, for example, about how Berlusconi's government will behave, what the French will do. "The issue is whether those European governments have enough solidarity to make tough decisions when their own positions may be rather weak." According to Jacqueline Karas, the European Union will have to tread softly at the Montreal meeting. "They're going to have to be careful not to set themselves up against the US in an either/or situation - if they do that they will be undermining themselves," she said. "And with developing countries there is a need for both approaches. It is good what the US is doing now, but it's all about technology in 30 years' time; whereas the EU is focussed on this monstrous overload of emissions today, but doesn't have a good record in pioneering the clean technology that will be needed in future." There is also criticism of the new pact on the grounds that it is... well, not new at all. "There really isn't much new here - it's just the Bush administration merely repackaging initiatives it already has under way with a large group of these countries," said Philip Clapp. Nevertheless, for developing countries seeking a way forward beyond the Kyoto Protocol, it may prove a rather attractive package with its shiny paper of guaranteed economic growth and its ribbons of exciting new technology - perhaps more enticing than the European offering of mandatory targets and sanctions. The question remains, though, whether the attractive exterior hides a gift or a gun for the world's climate. BBC Online, 28 Jul 05 EU pushes binding climate deal By Richard Black BBC environment correspondent The European Union says it will push for legally binding global restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions. A spokeswoman's comments came after the announcement of a voluntary pact, based on new technology, between the US and five Asia-Pacific states. She also told BBC News that the new pact was unlikely to bring a significant reduction in emissions. The EU's intention to pursue further legally binding reductions could lead to political disputes later this year. 'Superior' deal The new pact will allow signed-up countries - currently the United States, Australia, China, India, South Korea and Japan - to set goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions individually, with no enforcement mechanism. The core approach is to develop clean technologies, such as low-emission coal-fired power stations, which can be used in developing countries as their energy needs increase. The signatories argue it complements, rather than weakens, the 1997 Kyoto agreement, which imposes targets on industrialised countries to cut their emissions. Speaking at the announcement, which came during the Regional Forum of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) in Laos, US Deputy Secretary of State, Robert Zoellick, said the six nations "view this as a complement, not an alternative" to Kyoto. Both the US and Australia have refused to ratify Kyoto, which came into effect earlier this year - partly, they say, because big developing countries like India and China escape emissions limits. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told BBC News: "Our view is you really need to focus on technological change to solve the climate change problem... and you do have to involve the major developing countries, which are very substantial emitters." A Chinese spokesman called the pact a "win-win solution" for developing countries. But environmental groups argue that the new agreement undermines the Kyoto Protocol, and will make the process of agreeing a successor treaty more difficult. The Geneva-based Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) said: "A deal on climate change that doesn't limit pollution is the same as a peace plan that allows guns to be fired." 'No substitute' The European Commission's environment spokeswoman Barbara Helferrich told the BBC News website that Europe remained committed to further legally binding reductions in emissions. "We welcome any initiative that can combat climate change, but this has to be seen in a global context," she said. "If it is simply technology and clean coal, it is no substitute for agreements like the Kyoto Protocol and we do not expect it to have a real impact on climate change. "There will have to be binding global agreements, but on what scale and what basis is yet to be decided." The designated forum for making those decisions is the next round of United Nations climate negotiations, which opens in Montreal in November - shortly after the Asia-Pacific grouping holds its first meeting in Adelaide. There is concern in environmental circles that the United States and Australia will present the new pact as evidence that a "son-of-Kyoto"-style treaty is not needed. Europe, which for many years has been the leading pro-Kyoto force, is unlikely to agree. links Related articles on Global issues: global warming issues, policies |
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