December 9: Following the meeting of U.S.
Vice President Al Gore and Japanese Prime Minister Hashimoto, who
currently hold the fate of the conference in their hands, many government
representatives and environmental NGOs criticized Prime Minister Hashimoto
who left the conference after only two hours and expressed discouragement
at Vice President Gore, who displayed a "flexible stance", but
only repeated the U.S. government's previously stated official position. "There
is only a little time left, and the conference is at a complete stalemate,"
said one participant. "I doubt we can reach an agreement this time,"
said another. "It seems that we might not reach agreement on the
Kyoto Protocol during the Kyoto conference, and that the decision will be
delayed until next year in Argentina. The continued existence of my island
nation is dependent on the results, so I would like to return with some
sort of positive results from this conference," said a representative
of the delegation of Nauru in the South Pacific. After Vice
President Gore's speech, the three major international environmental
NGOs made emergency announcements. "Stop wasting time with discussion
that does not produce results. The U.S. has yet to make any specific
promises regarding the reduction of greenhouse gases," said
Greenpeace representative Jennifer Morgan. Twenty-six
representatives from 18 countries which belong to the Friends of the Earth
gathered in front of the International Conference Hall and waved flags
displaying a red drawing of the Earth. "We want the ministers from
each country to take to heart the wishes of the people of the Earth, and
come to agreement on a clear course of action to prevent global warming."
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Earlier, Mr Gore's grandstand speech to the UN global warming conference on
December 8 left his opponents on either side crying foul, deriding his
remarks as going too far or not far enough. "The briefcase was empty.
There were no targets in his speech and that's what we need to know now in
the next three days," said Adam Markham, director of the World Wide
Fund for Nature. Greenpeace said Mr Gore should "cut the hot air"
and expressed disappointment at his failure to commit the U.S. to further
emission cuts.
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Indian environment minister Saifuddin Soz clarified that under the Berlin
mandate, adopted at the first climate change conference in 1995, the
developing world was not required to make any commitment. Any cut below the
10% agreed at the 1990 conference would be "irrelevant", Soz said.
The
International Conference on Voluntary Business Initiatives for Mitigating
Climate Change (sponsored by the Federation of Economic Organisations and
other economic organisations) got underway on December 3 at a hotel in
Kyoto, Japan. Meetings were held to discuss the role of industry in dealing
with the problem of global warming. The conference, planned to coincide with
COP3, has adopted a collaborative declaration asking that the COP3 Kyoto
Conference should respect the independence of industry. The members opined
that allowing industries to act independently would be more effective than
binding all industries to stiff, one-sided regulations.
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In the first part of the conference, "Symposium on Voluntary Business
Initiatives for Mitigating Climate Change", representatives from 13
economic organisations in Europe, the U.S. and Asia participated in
discussions on global warming. Industry and Employers stressed the
importance of partnerships with governments, and the Federation of Economic
Organisations stated that independent action is more practical and effective
than general regulations. The collaborative declaration, which was discussed
and adopted at the meeting, expresses that industry plays an indispensable
role as a promoter of countermeasures to global warming. The declaration
states that clarity is needed for independent action, and requests that the
policies and measures being examined at the Kyoto Conference be designed to
encourage independent action by industries. The collaborative declaration
will be submitted to COP3 Chairman and Environment Agency Director-General
Hiroshi Oki. Meanwhile, NGOs and business organisations are intensifying
their lobbying activities aimed at government representatives. On Wednesday,
Greenpeace publicly released a list of the 53 economic groups participating
in the conference, strongly criticising these groups as attempting to
undermine the conference. NGOs from Japan have also begun a vote for "Businesses
Ruining COP3".
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According to Greenpeace, approximately 1,000 people related to economic
organisations are participating in the conference. The largest number from
any one group is 111 representatives from the International Chamber of
Commerce and Industry, which is formed by businesses from around the
world, followed by the Global Climate Coalition, an association of oil
companies from the U.S. The Federation of Economic Organisations from
Japan has also sent 60 representatives to the conference. Greenpeace has
formed a "Political Team" comprising 12 members. Members of the
group are assigned to specified regions - the U.S., Japan, the EU, etc. --
and analyze information collected daily about each of these governments.
The members then exchange information directly with government
representatives from each country in an attempt to realise a major
reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) emission. American Kalee Kreider of
Greenpeace states that the U.S. proposal (0% reduction) is so low because
business groups are making major political contributions to sway the
politicians, and that Greenpeace will do as much as possible to counter
the influence of business lobbyists at COP3. The Japanese NGO "Friends
of the Earth" has also created a list of 12 companies such as energy
related businesses and automobile manufacturers that are hindering carbon
dioxide reduction. Since Wednesday, the group has been asking people
participating in the conference to vote on the "Dirty Dozen Ballot",
selecting the worst businesses that are most severely hindering CO2
reduction in an effort to check the lobbying activities of business and
economic organizations. The list includes the Global Climate Coalition,
Exxon, Tokyo Electric, Ford/Chrysler/GM, Shell, ABB, World Business
Council for Sustainable Development, Uranium Institute and FORATOM,
Mitsubishi, Mobil, Elf Aquitaine and British Petroleum. (ENN)
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More
than 500 physicians and scientists who say scientific understanding of the
global climate is inadequate to justify drastic control policies signed a
letter addressed to world leaders at the Kyoto climate talks that opposes a
climate change treaty. "As responsible members of the scientific and
medical communities, we support efforts to improve the global environment
and public health," says the letter. "Given that economic
prosperity is necessary for a cleaner environment and improved public
health, action that harms the global and national economies should not be
taken without compelling evidence of need." The letter recommends that
the world's governments defer taking action on a climate change protocol
until the science shows that limiting greenhouse gas emissions will "benefit,
not harm, the global environment and public health." The letter was
initiated by the Advancement of Sound Science Coalition and the European
Science and Environment Forum. "This letter has been in circulation
only a short time," said TASSC executive director Steven J. Milloy. "We
are overwhelmed by the strength of the response and will continue to accept
signatures. World leaders assembled in Kyoto should heed this call to avoid
rash and harmful action on greenhouse gas emissions." TASSC, located in
Washington, D.C., and ESEF, located in Cambridge, United Kingdom, are
not-for-profit organizations of scientists, former public policy officials
and others interested in the use of sound science in public policy.
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KYOTO : Costa Rican cloud forest birds
migrate to cooler air uphill. English frogs and newts spawn earlier in the
year. Sea birds off the American Pacific coast nearly vanish in 10 years.
All are signs of how global warming is altering the habits, migration and
breeding of animals "and how it could eventually affect humans,
environmentalists at a global climate conference said yesterday. These
changes will have a very serious impact on human welfare," said Barnaby
Briggs, of Birdlife International. Briggs pointed to a recent study by his
group and the World Wildlife Fund that documented how several species of
birds, plants and other wildlife were adapting to the gradual warming of the
earth's atmosphere. Briggs and other environmentalists urged officials
meeting at the UN climate conference in Kyoto, Japan, to adopt ironclad
restrictions on the emissions of so-called "greenhouse gases"
blamed for the gradual increase in the temperature of the planet. "The
fundamental thing needed ... Is that greenhouse emissions must be reduced in
the long term to ensure a secure future for wildlife," he told
presspersons.
Greenhouse gas limits attained at Kyoto It took an all-night
session and lots of haggling over details for delegates at the Kyoto
conference on global warming to reach a tentative agreement on limits for
emissions of the "greenhouse" gases. The proposal, still to be
approved by a vote of the full gathering of 160 nations at the Kyoto
conference, 38 industrialised nations -- including the United States, Japan
and the nations of the European Union (EU) -- refers to an agreement to
accept binding targets for reducing their emissions. While the EU countries
are expected to set emissions targets for the year 2008 at 8 per cent below
the level of emissions in 1990, the United States and Japan are expected to
effect cuts in emissions to the order of 7 per cent and 6 per cent
respectively. The other 21 countries are expected to meet similar targets
between 2008 and 2012. Thus, the 38 nations are expected to cut greenhouse
emissions to slightly more than 5 per cent below 1990 levels. "This is
a figure that is going to have an impact on the concentration of greenhouse
gases in the atmosphere," said Raul Estrada, chairman of the Kyoto
conference, where the agreement was hammered out over the past 11 days.
Meanwhile, China and other countries have argued that such limits would harm
the industrialisation plans needed to build their economies and mitigate
poverty in their countries. Only voluntary limits will be acceptable, they
opine. However, delegates did approve a proposal that would allow countries
to "buy" pollution credits on an international market, allowing a
country that was under its limit for greenhouse gas emissions to sell extra
capacity to countries out of room under their cap, reports ENN. China and
India had objected to the pollution credit proposal, sponsored by the United
States, asserting it would allow industrialised countries to escape making
required cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
The
treaty becomes binding on countries only when ratified by their governments.
Besides, the exemption for developing countries is expected to make it
difficult to get the treaty ratified by the U.S. Congress. "The Senate
will not ratify a flawed climate treaty," Senate Majority Leader Trent
Lott warned Thursday in a statement. Without reductions in greenhouse gas
emissions, scientists say that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could double
during the next century, warming the atmosphere and triggering an
environmental chain reaction that could raise sea levels, change ocean
currents and intensify damage from storms, droughts and the spread of
tropical diseases. Emissions of six gases -- carbon dioxide, methane,
nitrous oxide and three halocarbons used as substitutes for ozone-damaging
chlorofluorocarbons -- would be affected. (ENN & Reuters)
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Tiger population on decline after "chief
protector" Indira Gandhi's death WASHINGTON: In the death of Prime
Minister Indira Gandhi, Indian tigers have lost their "chief protector",
says the National Geographic Magazine. 'The Project Tiger', initiated by
Indira Gandhi in 1973, resulted in the doubling of their numbers by the time
she died in 1984 and after that it began to decline. "The tigers began
to disappear. It was discovered they were being poisoned, shot and snared so
their bones could be smuggled out of India to supply manufacturers of
Chinese medicines," it adds. The Project Tiger had set aside nine
national parks for special protection. The plan seemed to be working
officials announced in 1984 that the number of tigers had more than doubled.
But the death of Gandhi later that year meant the loss of the tigers chief
protector. "Human population rose and promised safe corridors were
converted to farmers fields, inundated by dams and honeycombed with coal
mines. There were fewer and fewer places to which young tigers could
disperse and more and more conflicts between tigers and people," it
adds. Extended field research and documentation by author of the report for
the magazine Geoffrey C. Ward and photographer Michael Nicoals have been
shown that despite some progress in preserving the species the future of the
tiger remains perilous. Nicoals spent more than a year on the assignment,
photographing tigers in seven countries and enjoying unusual access to the
parks in India where tigers live. He shot much of the story from atop an
elephant, reports UNI.
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Bahuguna decides to end fast
TEHRI: Eminent environmentalist Sunderlal Bahuguna decided to call off his
56-day-long fast following the Government Order to stop blastings and heavy
vehicular traffic on the Tehri dam site till his further meeting with Prime
Minister I K Gujral. Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Madhu Dandavate,
who alongwith Union Energy Minister Y K Alagh and Environment and Forest
Minister Saifuddin Soz, called on the Chipko leader. The meeting, to be
attended by other ministers also, is likely to take place in the first or
second week of January after Bahuguna's complete recovery from fast.
However, with the fall of the Gujral government, the situation remains bleak
till further developments take place.
[Top]
Six countries sign Kyoto
convention on climate change 
A
total of six countries signed the Kyoto protocol on climate change on March
16, 1998, the first day it was open for signatures with the hope that it
would be enforced after 2000. Maldives, Samoa, Antigua and Barbuda signed in
the morning and Switzerland, St. Lucia and Argentina in the afternoon. For
the small island nations, it was a symbolic political gesture because they
would be directly affected by rising sea levels if the climate warms up.
Michael Zammit Cutajar, who presided over the conference in Kyoto, said
countries have one year to sign the protocol, which will be enforced 90 days
after the legislatures of 55 countries have ratified it. Ratification
involves enacting national laws to enforce the protocol. Cutajar said he
expected the ratification process to take two to three years. "We can
look forward to the protocol's entry into force very early in the next
century and to a first review of its contents soon thereafter", Cutajar
said. He said the first benchmark will be 2005 when the parties will
demonstrate progress in meeting emissions targets as called for in the
protocol. Parties to the protocol should reduce their combined emissions in
six greenhouse gases by 5 per cent below 1990 levels by the 2008-2010
period.
If the targets are met by 2010, emissions levels would be 29 per cent below
what they would have been without the protocol. The six greenhouse gases are
carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons
and sulphur hexafluoride. The greenhouse effects are the result of those
gases trapped in the atmosphere, causing a warming up of the Earth's
atmosphere. The protocol contained legally binding targets for developed
countries beginning of the next century. The United States alone is
responsible for 36 per cent of the world's carbon dioxide emissions. Russia
comes second, reports DPA.
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