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News from Marrakech - COP7 |
Planet Ark: Reuters Environment News
The deal further increases the chances of
the protocol being ratified
by enough industrialised
countries for it to enter into force. It also
re-emphasises
the political isolation of the USA following its decision
to withdraw from negotiations in March.
"The
Kyoto protocol is saved," chief EU negotiator Olivier
Deleuze,
the Belgian energy minister, said. "We
have been able to remove the
initial reluctance
of certain countries [and] can now go back to
citizens
and tell them that, finally, action can start on the
ground".
Agreed in 1997, the Kyoto protocol
obliges ratifying industrialised
countries to achieve
an aggregate 5.2% cut in greenhouse gases against
1990 levels by 2008-12. After the previous round of
talks in July,
when several carbon sink "loopholes"
were introduced, the EU calculated
that the real
effect of the protocol would only be to require a 2%
emissions reduction. The Marrakech accord has trimmed
this further to
1.5%, European Commission climate
experts said today.
Saturday's deal was only made
possible after the EU made significant
concessions
to trenchant demands for more flexibility made by Japan
and
Russia in particular. However, the EU won a
condition that countries
may only use the protocol's
vital "flexible mechanisms" of meeting
targets through emissions trading and funding climate
gas-cutting
projects abroad if they accept its compliance
regime.
This means that if they fail to comply
with the protocol's strict
monitoring and reporting
provisions, or if they exceed emissions
targets
at the end of the first commitment period, they will
be
ineligible to trade.
On the other hand,
this compliance regime has as yet only been agreed
politically, with countries free to flout it without
fear of legal
action. Whether the compliance sanctions
are made legally binding will
be decided after the
protocol enters into force.
But in a concession
wrung by Japan, the eligibility to use the
mechanisms
will never be subject to legally binding sanctions,
essentially leaving it up to the conscience of individual
countries
whether they follow rulings by the protocol's
compliance board.
In a second major concession,
the conference agreed to double the
maximum amount
of carbon sinks that Russia can claim from 17 to 33m
tonnes. Japan also supported the change and is expected
to be a major
buyer of the resulting credits. In
addition, the conference agreed
that, for the first
commitment period, countries would not have to
prove
their sink accounting was satisfactory to be eligible
to use the
mechanisms.
Another thorny issue
was whether emission reduction credits could be
banked from one commitment period to the next. Under
the accord, those
from clean development mechanism
(CDM) or joint implementation projects
are "bankable",
while those from sinks projects are not.
The CDM
is now a reality under a "prompt start" after
its executive
board held a first meeting. Companies
can now invest in projects,
though emission reduction
credits generated from them can only be
bought and
sold from 2008, when a global trading system between
Kyoto
parties is due to begin.
Finally, developed
countries acceded to demands from energy-producing
countries to report to them on the likely impact their
policies to meet
Kyoto commitments are likely to
have on energy demand.
Japan has finally decided to ratify
the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas
emissions,
despite resistance from the United States and domestic
industries,
the government said Monday evening.
"I
hope not only industries but also each citizen will
cooperate in tackling
this issue," Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi said.
Environment Minister Yoriko
Kawaguchi urged big businesses, which have been
reluctant to implement the treaty, to cooperate.
She also suggested the possibility of an "environmental tax" on vehicle fuel.
The protocol is due to be ratified in the next Diet session, officials said.
When
asked about Washington's rejection of the pact, Kawaguchi
said she has
already informed the United States
of Japan's decision.
The treaty requires each
signatory country to achieve a target level for
greenhouse gas emission reductions. Industrialized countries
as a whole have
to reduce some 5 percent of emissions
from the 1990 level between 2008 and
2012. Japan
has to cut 6 percent from the 1990 amount during the
period.
At the recent 7th session of the Conference
of the Parties (COP7) to the U.N.
Framework Convention
on Climate Change in Morocco, Japan and other countries
agreed on how to implement the requirements. U.S. President
George W. Bush and
his administration pulled out
of the protocol earlier this year, saying that
the
reduction measures could harm the American economy.
The global warming treaty concluded early yesterday
in Morocco by 160 countries marked an important victory
for European and environmental leaders in rallying the
international community behind a document that was rejected
earlier this year by President Bush.
The groundbreaking treaty, the product of intense haggling beginning four years ago in Kyoto, Japan, would require about 40 industrialized countries to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases by an average of 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.
The pact also spells out rules for compliance, sets binding penalties for countries that fail to meet their targets and creates a trading program that will allow major industrial polluters to buy carbon emission "credits" from countries with low pollution levels or that invest heavily in anti-pollution technology.
But in reaching agreement, European Union leaders were obliged to make last-minute concessions to Russia, Japan, Australia and Canada that added flexibility to the rules and granted added economic advantage. Japan insisted that negotiators wait until after the treaty is formally ratified next year before determining whether the emission targets are "legally" binding or simply "politically" binding, as it prefers. Russia extracted a concession doubling the amount of credits it could claim for its carbon-absorbing forests and agricultural land from 17.6 million tons to 33 million tons.
Many of the negotiators, environmental leaders and lawmakers concede that without the participation of the United States -- which is responsible for a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions -- the treaty at best will have only modest impact for the foreseeable future. The World Wildlife Fund and others have estimated that the accord's effectiveness will be diminished by at least half because of the concessions granted and the withdrawal of the United States from the treaty.
"Without U.S. participation and with credits being granted for 'business as usual,' I think the reductions you get off the baseline are very small," said Eileen Claussen, president of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. "Whatever short-term competitive advantage may result from the United States' rejection of Kyoto will be far outweighed in the long term by the harmful economic and environmental consequences of inaction."
Bush said in March that the treaty would impose too harsh a burden on U.S. industries and utilities that use large quantities of coal. He also said it was unfair that the treaty would exempt developing countries, including China and India, from the mandatory emissions targets.
Since then, the United States has essentially gone its own way, contemplating a number of voluntary measures for reducing greenhouse gas emissions but putting forward little. Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a Cabinet-level review of alternatives to the Kyoto protocol has been largely put on hold. Despite repeated goading by Republican and Democratic lawmakers to return to the international bargaining table, the U.S. delegation showed up for the Marrakesh conference beginning two weeks ago with nothing to offer.
"The big question now is how we bring the United States into the biggest international effort against the greenhouse effect," said Olivier Deleuze, Belgium's environment secretary and the head of the European delegation.
Paula Dobriansky, undersecretary of state for global affairs, said recently that the United States was looking for a global solution to climate change, one that would be a "tapestry" of national and regional measures rather than the single worldwide system provided by the Kyoto protocol.
Yesterday, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said Bush "agrees with the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions" and "remains committed to addressing the long-term issue of climate change with a science-based approach that uses new technology to protect our environment, consumers and global economy."
But some argue it will be harder for Bush to continue charting his own course on global warming while insisting that U.S. allies support the war on terrorism and continued U.S. bombing of Afghanistan.
"After the events of September 11th, if there is any reason for the United States to call for international, global approaches, [it should also] join a global approach to the existing global problem of climate change," said Dutch Environment Minister Jan Pronk.
Claussen said Congress may have to provide leadership on global warming in the absence of White House action. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman James M. Jeffords (I-Vt.) is sponsoring legislation to force sharp reductions in carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, and Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) is assembling an energy package that will have a strong emphasis on global warming. But action on those measures is unlikely until early next year.
"Obviously, the United States is the biggest contributor to the problem, and we owe it to the world" to take part in the treaty, a senior Senate Democratic aide said yesterday. "I think it's naive for us to think we can forever avoid participating in an international regime on climate change."
Every country in the world except
the US reached agreement this weekend on how to enforce
the Kyoto accord on tackling climate change.
Ministers
of 180 countries negotiated through Friday night in
Marrakesh, Morocco, on ways to ensure compliance with
the treaty, which commits countries to curbing emissions
of carbon dioxide and other gases that lead to global
warming.
Agreement was reached only after the talks overcame co-ordinated obstruction by Japan, Canada and Russia. President Bush pulled the US, the world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide, out of the agreement earlier this year, claiming it might harm the US economy.
Margaret Beckett, Britain's Environment Secretary, said: 'This is the first multinational environment agreement with teeth, and it will make an enormous difference in reducing greenhouse emissions.'
French Environment Minister Yves Cochet said: 'There is agreement on everything by everyone.'
The agreement calls on nearly 40 industrial countries to limit or reduce emissions of greenhouse gases - primarily carbon dioxide from industry and cars - which scientists believe are raising global temperatures. The accord assigns each country a target, forcing it to curb emissions by an average of 5.2 per cent below 1990 levels by 2012. An enforcement system, with international observers and penalties, will be implemented if countries fail to meet their targets.
Negotiators were stuck on five points related to easing the reduction of emissions. Canada, Russia, Japan and Australia rejected a paper on how market-based mechanisms - trading rights to emit gases - would function.
The deadlock was broken with a compromise paper, which saved the United Nations' 1997 Kyoto Treaty. A sticking point was the issue of carbon 'sinks' - forests, grassland and other vegetation that absorbs carbon dioxide, and can be counted against a country's emissions reduction target.
Planting forests will allow developed nations to take less action to reduce the burning of fossil fuels. However, rich nations can also pay for forest-planting projects in the developing world to offset against their own emissions. There is concern the treaty will encourage the planting of huge monoculture forests that are bad for communities and wildlife.
European nations made substantial concessions to Russia, Canada and Japan to reach agreement. Russia was allowed to argue that its vast forests soaked up at least 17 million metric tonnes of carbon a year, thus sparing it the need to reduce its use of coal and oil by that amount. Russia will be able to sell its excess energy credits to Japan, letting Japan do less to curb its own emissions.
Environmentalists fear the treaty will make little impact on emissions. Beckett rejected these criticisms: 'You can always say "wouldn't it be better if?", but no one would have wanted us to leave without an agreement.'
The treaty must be ratified by 55 countries, responsible for 55 per cent of emissions. Most EU countries expect to ratify it in 2002. Kate Hampton, Friends of the Earth international climate co-ordinator, said: 'Drastic future cuts in emissions are vital to prevent dangerous climate change and this agreement is only the beginning. We will hold countries to their commitments and fight the use of treaty loopholes.'
The US says it recognises the problem of global warming, but wants to address it through its own domestic measures.
After four grinding
years of negotiations, the final details of a pioneering
treaty aimed at fighting global warming emerged from
talks in Morocco yesterday, and many large industrial
countries, excepting the United States, said they were
likely to ratify the agreement.
If enacted, and
significant hurdles still must be crossed for that to
happen, the treaty, called the Kyoto Protocol, would
set the first binding restrictions on releases of carbon
dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases by
industrial countries.
President Bush rejected the
treaty in March, limiting its reach by putting the United
States, the largest source of such gases, on the sidelines.
At the time, the decision caused some other countries,
most notably Japan, Canada, Russia and Australia, to
hesitate.
But after two weeks of discussions in
Marrakesh among this group, along with developing countries
and the European Union, the treaty's strongest proponent,
agreement was reached on a set of compromises.
"The Kyoto Protocol is saved," Olivier DeLeuze,
head of the delegation from the European Union, said
after the deal was announced.
Negotiations were
far tougher than those producing every other past international
environmental treaty, officials of many governments
said, because cuts in these emissions will come mainly
from restricting the burning of coal, oil and other
fossil fuels, the underpinning of industrial economies.
The industrial countries that sign on will be required,
as a group, to cut emissions by 2012 to levels about
5 percent below emissions levels in 1990. That shared
target will be easier to achieve, in part, because Russia
and some other countries, after the collapse of Communism,
saw emissions drop far below 1990 levels.
As happens
to most international agreements, the treaty lost some
of its initial vision over years of negotiation between
blocs of countries that would be affected differently
by its terms. For example, Russia, Canada and Japan
sought and gained substantial credit toward their gas
targets for the ability of their forests to absorb carbon
dioxide, the main greenhouse gas.
In telephone
interviews yesterday, American officials at the meeting
gave no sign that the Bush administration would reconsider
joining the effort. "Other countries have chosen
their path, and our answer is still no," said a
senior member of the American delegation.
Some of
Mr. Bush's critics in the Senate, most notably James
M. Jeffords of Vermont, chairman of the Environment
and Public Works Committee, criticized the administration's
lack of an alternative to the treaty. He said that Washington
"refuses to take responsibility for its share of
the problem."
Most climate scientists say that
a buildup of greenhouse gases has caused at least part
of the world's warming trend that could lead to droughts,
floods and agricultural disruption.
Mr. Bush has
said that the Kyoto pact could harm the American economy
and was unfair because developing countries like China
and India were excused from any obligations to make
emissions cuts.
In a statement delivered at the
closing ceremonies, Paula J. Dobriansky, the under secretary
of state for global affairs, said the Bush administration
was still committed to solving the problem, but in its
own way and at its own pace. "Climate change is
a serious issue that requires real action," she
said.
Nonetheless, the completion of the treaty
‹ even without the United States and with various
compromises ‹ still represented an important moment
in industrial history, environment experts said.
After a century of growing use of fossil fuels with
little regard for the impacts of a steady buildup of
greenhouse gases, many experts said, this is the first
global mechanism for limiting such environmental harm.
"It's by far the strongest environmental treaty
that's ever been drafted, from the beginning to the
end, from the soup of measuring emissions to the nuts
of the compliance regime," said David D. Doniger,
the director of climate programs for the Natural Resources
Defense Council, a private environmental group.
"The parties have reached complete agreement on
what's an infraction, how you decide a case and what
are the penalties," said Mr. Doniger, who attended
the meeting. "That's as good as it gets in international
relations."
Another innovation in the treaty
is its unfettered trading mechanism for greenhouse-gas
emissions. Until last summer, the European Union, driven
by strong public sentiment, had staunchly opposed allowing
a country to get credit towards its emissions targets
by investing in cheaper pollution cleanup projects overseas.
But under pressure from Japan, Canada and Russia,
that opposition faded in Marrakesh, negotiators said.
The goal of such trading is to foster international
markets for energy-efficient technologies, treaty supporters
said.
"The Marrakesh results send a clear
signal to business, local governments and the general
public that climate-friendly products, services and
activities will be rewarded," said Michael Zammit-Cutajar,
a United Nations official.
To gain legal force,
the treaty must be ratified by at least 55 countries,
including a group responsible for at least 55 percent
of the heat- trapping emissions from industrial countries
in 1990. With the United States out, that threshold
can be achieved only with the support of both Japan
and Russia.
Russia gave strong signals yesterday
that it was satisfied. In a statement made before the
meeting closed, Aleksandr I. Bedritsky, the lead negotiator
from Russia, said the agreement "opens the path
for the ratification by all countries, including the
Russian Federation."
Representatives of Japan,
where industries are fighting the pact, were more circumspect.
That hesitation is natural because Japan ‹ under
the arithmetic of the treaty ‹ will have to make
significant cuts in emissions domestically to reach
its target, said Dr. Richard L. Schmalensee, dean of
the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.
Europe is in a better
position to meet its targets because it benefits from
the large cuts in emissions that already occurred in
Britain and Germany for economic, not environmental,
reasons. The Europeans took credit in Marrakesh for
leading on the issue.
Many officials at the meeting
said that Mr. Bush, who is dedicated to building and
maintaining an alliance against terrorism, was missing
an opportunity to seek an international approach to
the environment.
Dr. Schmalensee said the main
benefit of the treaty was not the modest cuts in emissions
it set, but the mechanisms and institutions it would
create. "It'll build some engagement and the habit
of compliance," he said. "This is a first
step."
MARRAKECH, Morocco (AP) - From insulation hidden behind walls at home to highly visible power plants outdoors, the first international treaty to fight global warming is poised to change landscapes, and lives, around the world - except in the United States.
In the final moments of a two-week conference in Morocco, negotiators from 165 countries agreed on hard-fought rules for implementing the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which calls on about 40 industrialized nations to limit carbon emissions or cut them to below 1990 levels.
As a result, mountain ridges and coastlines are likely to sprout plantations of steel windmills. With nations under pressure to cut pollution, new cars, household appliances, even the simple light bulb will have to be designed to save energy.
And carbon dioxide - a substance we exhale with every breath - will be a controlled gas and a marketable commodity with a price.
Scientists believe the carbon that humans let loose in the atmosphere, mostly from factories and vehicles, has upset the natural balance, sending temperatures up and changing the climate. Already, glaciers are melting, sea levels rising and severe storms becoming more frequent.
The agreement on the Marrakech rules - scores of pages of complex legal text - cleared the way for the landmark treaty to be ratified, probably some time next year, and become binding law for its signatories.
The United States, however, has rejected the accord, calling it harmful to the U.S. economy and unfair because it excused heavily polluting developing countries like India and China from any obligation.
In Washington, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Saturday that President Bush took note of the rules agreed upon in Morocco.
``He agrees with the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. His Cabinet review is under way, to determine a way that can be done without forcing America into a deep recession,'' Fleischer said.
Bush has said the United States will take independent action to combat global warming. He has set up programs to further study climate change and encourage research on new technology.
The Kyoto Protocol sets tough targets for slashing carbon emissions. Japan, for example, agreed to cut them by 6 percent from the 1990 level - but its emissions have grown by 17 percent since 1990, making that task far more formidable.
To ease the burden, the protocol establishes mechanisms to let countries partly offset their targets. They can earn credits for proper management of forests and farmlands that absorb carbon dioxide - so-called carbon sinks - and for helping developing countries avoid emissions.
The accord also allows for emissions trading, letting countries that cannot meet their targets buy the right to pollute from those that come in under their quota.
However, negotiators agreed that such mechanisms can only supplement real emission cuts - not replace them - and countries will have to adopt energy-saving measures to meet their targets.
That means old houses should have their electrical wiring redone, their windows triple glazed and their walls insulated to conserve energy. Solar panels may appear on more rooftops, and new refrigerators made to will run on one-tenth the energy of old ones.
The rules could lead to more public transportation and changes in city planning to scale back the use of cars. At the same time, hybrid autos using fuel cells already are on the roads, and car companies are researching engines that use less fuel and emit less carbon.
Many countries will set up domestic carbon trading markets where companies can buy and sell carbon credits. A similar U.S. market for sulfur dioxide was credited with helping reduce acid rain in the 1990s.
``Carbon will have a price. Until now, you could put as much carbon in the air as you wanted for free,'' said David Doniger of the Washington-based Natural Resources Defense Council. ``That's going to affect the way power plants are built and the way cars are being designed.''
Environmentalists say mechanisms like emissions trading are loopholes that have diluted the goal of Kyoto: to clean up polluting industries and reduce actual emissions. But they welcomed the Marrakech agreement.
The accord assigns each country a specific target, but the average is a 5.2 percent emission reduction from 1990 levels by 2012.
``Five percent is not going to be achieved, but that doesn't mean it's not worth having,'' said Bill Hare of Greenpeace, speaking Saturday for a coalition of environmental groups. ``This is a first step.''
The EU objective has reached its objective to make the Kyoto Protocol - the international framework to cut greenhouse gas emissions - operational. After two weeks of difficult negotiations, the 7th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Climate Change (COP7) in Marrakech has ended with an agreement on the operational rules to fight climate change. The package agreed upon includes decisions on compliance rules, the so-called "flexible mechanisms" and monitoring and reporting obligations for Parties. All Parties agreed that the package would be sufficient for the timely ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. The Protocol has to be ratified by 55 Parties representing 55% of industrialised countries' greenhouse gas emissions.
Olivier Deleuze, head of the EU delegation declared: "the Kyoto Protocol is saved. We have been able to remove initial reluctance by certain countries to recognise and preserve the Bonn agreement. We can now go back to citizens and tell them that, finally, action can start on the ground to put an end to the dramatic consequences of climate change, which are threatening the whole planet. The success at the Conference in Marrakech demonstrates that, despite the tragic events of 11 September, the international community is able to produce positive responses to global challenges. It provides evidence of the confidence of citizens and political leaders in the capacity of all countries to continue to work together to build a more sustainable future. "
Environment Commissioner Margot Wallström stated: "This is a milestone in the global fight against climate change. I am pleased to say that the long and bumpy road from Buenos Aires, via The Hague and Bonn, led to a success in Marrakech, despite the loss of a very important passenger on the way. We have now concluded four years of tough negotiations since the Kyoto Protocol came into existence in 1997. Now, we can commence a new journey to make the Protocol enter into force and pave the way for real action to cut greenhouse emissions. We need to travel at high speed. This is what people expect. Like the European Union, all other Parties should now take steps to bring the Protocol into force by the World Summit for Sustainable Development in September 2002."
Olivier Deleuze said: "Once again, the European Union has provided leadership in the international negotiations on the fight against climate change."
Commissioner Wallström declared: "Peoples across the globe have demonstrated that, facing the global threat of climate change, they want to join forces."
The most important achievements of COP7 are:
The Political
Agreement of Bonn in July was made operational. All
its provisions were translated into legal texts.
A solid compliance system has been established that will be put in place after entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol.
Rules and modalities on the Kyoto Mechanisms were decided that would allow the prompt start of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and the start of Joint Implementation (JI) projects.
The international emissions trading can start as of 2008.
Monitoring and reporting procedures were established providing transparency and certainty for the operation of the Kyoto mechanisms.
Rules were set for the transfer of credits from sinks activities (i.e. in forestry and agricultural land-use).
Support will be given
to Least Developed Countries for the adaptation to climate
change.
The Accord reached in Marrakech proves
that multilateral co-operation at the level of the United
Nations can successfully address one of the most important
global challenges at the beginning of the 21st century.
The overall result also means that the fight against
climate change has entered a new phase. The EU stands
ready to take further steps after the entry into force
of the Kyoto Protocol in order to achieve the ultimate
objective of preventing irreversible environmental damage
from greenhouse gas emissions of the Framework Convention
on Climate Change.
The European Union was instrumental
in securing the deal in Marrakech. The negotiations
underpinned the leadership role of the European Union
in the fight against climate change, working together
with the Accession countries and other economies in
transition, and, in particular, the developing countries
of the Group of G77 and China. The accord of Marrakech
will also send a positive message to the World Summit
on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg in
September 2002.
Negotiators in the
Moroccan city of Marrakech have reached agreement on
implementing the Kyoto Protocol on climate change and
global warming.
Working through Friday night to meet a deadline set by chairman Mohamed El Yazghi, delegates finally agreed the details of how the protocol will operate.
"There is agreement on everything by everyone," said French Environment MinisterYves Cochet.
The deal will be voted on by a plenary session of Kyoto signatories later on Saturday.
The Kyoto Protocol calls on nearly 40 industrial countries to limit or reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases - primarily carbon dioxide from industry and cars - which some scientists believe are rapidly raising global temperatures.
The
accord assigns each country a target and
sets an
average 5.2% emission reduction from 1990 levels, to
be achieved by 2012 - although environmental groups
say the reality is nearer 2%.
Key umbrella
One of the main sticking points has been the issue of carbon "sinks" - forests, grassland and other vegetation which absorbs carbon dioxide, and can be counted against a country's emissions reduction target.
With the US - the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gasses - definitely refusing to ratify, the support of Australia, Canada, Japan and Russia has become vital.
This tactical alliance is called the Umbrella Group, and it had been blocking agreements on certain key points.
Russia was allowed to argue that its vast forests soaked up at least 17 million metric tonnes of carbon a year, thus sparing it the need to reduce its use of coal and oil by that amount.
The exact details of the final deal are not yet clear, but it seems apparent that Russia will be able to sell its excess energy credits and that Japan will be able to buy them.
The EU says it will ratify Kyoto by 2002, but its support alone will not be enough to bring the treaty into force. For that to happen, Kyoto must be ratified by at least 55 countries responsible for 55% of 1990's emissions.
Bickering between 160 states on details of the Kyoto
climate
deal continued in Marrakech last night, even though
two weeks
of talks were due to have ended in the afternoon.
The meeting was designed to put the finishing touches
to the
political deal agreed in Bonn in June, in which all
developed
states except the US agreed to cut their greenhouse
emissions
to curb the worst effects of global warming.
The Bonn deal was hailed as a triumph of international
diplomacy. Outstanding difficulties were left to the
meeting in
Marrakech.
But the Morocco talks took a depressingly familiar turn,
with
Japan, Russia, Canada and Australia sticking out for
more
generous terms. Japan was concerned about some legally
binding conditions while the others wanted more credits
for
growing forests to trap carbon, rather than cutting
emissions
from industry and traffic.
Ranged against them were the European Union and the
G77
group of developing countries, including China and India,
which
wanted the cuts to be real and verifiable. Overall,
even if the
agreement is fully implemented by 2012, the reductions
will only
be about 3% of total emissions, a tiny amount compared
with
the 60% that scientists say is needed to avoid the dangers
of
runaway global warming.
The hope was that once agreement was reached all countries
could go ahead and ratify the deal before the "Rio Plus
10"
conference (marking the 10th anniversary of the 1992
Earth
summit) in South Africa next September.
The EU has already said it will ratify the deal, but
more than half
of the 180 countries which signed the original treaty
also need to
so before the Kyoto protocol can come into force.
Everyone involved accepts that the Kyoto deal was a
necessary
start to a process which will take 50 years of progressive
cuts to
get right. The US, the world's largest polluter with
24% of the
total of carbon dioxide emissions, has repudiated the
whole
agreement because it says the sacrifices it would have
to make
would disproportionately damage its economy.
All states hope that in the wake of September 11 the
US will
become less isolationist and take a more positive approach
to
the climate treaty, rejoining the process for the next
round of
negotiations for reductions up to 2020.
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to top
The European Union last night accused Japan of reneging
on past climate
change negotiations and thereby threatening to wreck
the United Nations
conference called in Marrakech to put the Kyoto protocol
in final form for
ratification.
Singling out Japan as the main obstacle to a compromise
agreement, a
senior EU official said it was "unacceptable" for Tokyo
to insist now on a
decision on whether the Kyoto protocol should have legally
binding
sanctions.
He claimed it had been decided earlier this year that
this issue would be
decided only after the treaty came into force.
As the two-week conference began to overrun its scheduled
end, the official
said: "If this conference fails, it will in large part
be due to Japan."
The EU had tried to meet Japanese concerns by agreeing
that the list,
decided in Marrakech this week, of possible sanctions
on countries
breaching their Kyoto pollution reduction targets would
not be changed or
increased at some later date.
Brussels had also sought to allay Tokyo's doubts about
being able to buy
pollution "credits" from Russia in order for Japan to
keep within its Kyoto
emission ceiling.
The EU had offered to give Russia technical help in
monitoring its
carbon-absorbing forest "sinks" so that Russia would
qualify for carbon
trading.
The US decision to drop out of the Kyoto protocol has
made Russia and
Japan crucial to ratification.
The protocol requires the approval of countries responsible
for at least 55
per cent of the industrial world's emissions before
it enters into force.
The European Union's 15 members and the dozen candidates
for EU
membership back the protocol, but only with Japan and
Russia can they
meet the 55 per cent approval threshold.
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to top
Delegates to a UN meeting on climate change
in the Moroccan city of Marrakech are pressing
on with their discussions to finalise the details
of the Kyoto Protocol.
This is the international treaty under which
industrialised countries would commit
themselves to legally-binding cuts in their
emissions of the gases which are believed by
many scientists to be warming the planet.
But one country which could yet block
agreement is Russia, which is playing a key role
now that the United States is no longer part of
the negotiations.
The moment President Bush decided the United
States would stay outside the protocol, Russia
stepped into the spotlight.
After the US, it is listed as the next biggest
producer of greenhouse gases in the
industrialised world. If neither Russia nor the
United States take part, the whole plan will
collapse.
Substantial concessions were already made to
Russia in the last round of talks in Bonn in July.
Forest sinks
Russia was allowed to argue that its vast
forests soaked up at least 17 million metric
tonnes of carbon a year, thus sparing it the
need to reduce its use of coal and oil by that
amount.
But now the Russian delegation is asking for
further concessions, and threatening not to
ratify the agreement unless the allowance for
its forests is almost doubled.
In his formal statement, the Russian
representative talked grandly of using national
potential and creating incentives for
sustainable development. But other delegates
are calling it blackmail.
The spokesman for the developing countries
said that Russia's demands were definitely far
too high. But it looks as if Russia will get an
increase in the allowance that it can claim for
its forests, just in the interests of keeping it
inside the agreement.
The problem is that every extra tonne of
carbon on the allowance allows the burning of
an equivalent amount of coal and oil, and that
giving way to Russia could open the floodgates
to claims from other countries. Russia puts heat on
climate treaty
Russia has a key role to play in global warming talks
By the BBC's Elizabeth Blunt in Marrakech
Delegates to a UN meeting on climate change
in the Moroccan city of Marrakech are pressing
on with their discussions to finalise the details
of the Kyoto Protocol.
This is the international treaty under which
industrialised countries would commit
themselves to legally-binding cuts in their
emissions of the gases which are believed by
many scientists to be warming the planet.
But one country which could yet block
agreement is Russia, which is playing a key role
now that the United States is no longer part of
the negotiations.
The moment President Bush decided the United
States would stay outside the protocol, Russia
stepped into the spotlight.
After the US, it is listed as the next biggest
producer of greenhouse gases in the
industrialised world. If neither Russia nor the
United States take part, the whole plan will
collapse.
Substantial concessions were already made to
Russia in the last round of talks in Bonn in July.
Forest sinks
Russia was allowed to argue that its vast
forests soaked up at least 17 million metric
tonnes of carbon a year, thus sparing it the
need to reduce its use of coal and oil by that
amount.
But now the Russian delegation is asking for
further concessions, and threatening not to
ratify the agreement unless the allowance for
its forests is almost doubled.
In his formal statement, the Russian
representative talked grandly of using national
potential and creating incentives for
sustainable development. But other delegates
are calling it blackmail.
The spokesman for the developing countries
said that Russia's demands were definitely far
too high. But it looks as if Russia will get an
increase in the allowance that it can claim for
its forests, just in the interests of keeping it
inside the agreement.
The problem is that every extra tonne of
carbon on the allowance allows the burning of
an equivalent amount of coal and oil, and that
giving way to Russia could open the floodgates
to claims from other countries.
MARRAKESH, Morocco (Reuters) - Energy and environment
ministers from around the world were locked in hard
bargaining on
Thursday, racing against a deadline set by the chairman
of talks on
bringing a 1997 anti-global warming treaty into force.
``The conference will finish its work on Friday. It's
desirable that it
should end in success, but if it is a failure it will
be declared on Friday
night,'' Moroccan Environment Minister Mohamed El Yazghi
told a
news conference.
A total of 164 countries have gathered in Marrakesh
for two weeks of
U.N.-sponsored talks to agree on the detailed rulebook
that will govern
the working of the so-called Kyoto Protocol (news -
web sites).
Signed in Japan four years ago, it is the first international
treaty to set
binding limits on countries' emissions of greenhouse
gases such as
carbon dioxide (CO2), blamed for heating up the earth
and wreaking
havoc on the environment.
The treaty, which requires industrialized countries
to cut emissions by
an average of five percent by 2012, survived the withdrawal
of the
world's biggest emitter, the United States, in March,
but has yet to
enter into force as the remaining countries squabble
over the legal fine
print.
Despite an apparent breakthrough earlier in the week
on ensuring
countries meet their pollution reduction targets under
the Kyoto
Protocol, the European Union (news - web sites)'s chief
at the talks
said ``the negotiations on the difficult points haven't
yet begun.''
Olivier Deleuze, who is also Belgium's Energy Minister,
said everything
was left to play for before the end of the meeting.
``I am not optimistic. I am not pessimistic. I am here
to negotiate. I am
here to be tough. The Marrakesh summit is one more in
a series of
tough negotiations,'' he told reporters.
One of the thorniest issues -- agreeing on what sanctions
to impose on
a country failing to make required pollution cuts --
was settled in
principle by government officials on Tuesday.
NEW ZEALAND TO RATIFY PACT
But nothing will be legally agreed until a formal sitting
of all parties
planned on Friday. And delegates said the tentative
agreement on
compliance could fall apart because of linkages with
other tricky and
highly technical issues yet to be solved.
One of these is Russia's demand for an increase in the
amount of
emissions reductions it is allowed to offset by counting
the carbon
stored in its trees and farmlands, a figure set out
in a deal made in Bonn
in July.
The EU has repeatedly said it will not renegotiate the
Bonn agreement
as it could open a ``Pandora's box'' of demands for
renegotiation by
other countries.
But Iran, the head of the biggest negotiating bloc,
the G77 group of
developing countries, indicated it might accept a change
to the Russian
numbers ``as an exceptional case.''
Moscow holds an ace card at the negotiations.
Following the U.S. withdrawal, Russia's ratification
of the Kyoto pact is
essential to make the treaty quorate, as it needs to
be accepted by at
least 55 countries responsible for 55 percent of the
world's CO2
emissions in 1990.
``There are some tough questions being negotiated and
some
negotiators being tough,'' Michael Zammit Cutajar, head
of the U.N.
climate change secretariat, told a news conference.
New Zealand became the first of the so-called ``umbrella
countries'' --
nations, including Russia, seen as Kyoto-skeptics that
used to negotiate
alongside Washington -- to announce its firm intention
to ratify the 1997
pact.
``We are the first umbrella group nation to have made
such a
commitment, although we confidently predict that we
will be in good
company before too long,'' New Zealand Environment Minister
Peter
Hodgson told the plenary session.
``The chances of the (Kyoto) Protocol coming into force
in South Africa next year are now good,'' he
said in reference to the World Summit on Sustainable
Development scheduled for September 2002 in
Johannesburg.
MARRAKESH,
Morocco - Harvests of some of the world's key food crops
could
drop by up to 30 percent in the next 100 years
due to global warming, a U.N.
agency said.
The grim prediction was made by the United Nations
Environment Programme
(UNEP) in a document released
in Marrakesh which hosts a U.N.-sponsored
climate
change conference.
The report said scientists have
found "evidence that rising temperatures,
linked
with emissions of greenhouse gases, can damage the ability
of vital
crops such as wheat, rice and maize."
New
studies indicate that yields could fall by as much as
10 per cent for
every one degree Celsius rise in
areas such as the Tropics.
It said that the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the U.N.
team of
scientists that advise governments, estimate that average
global
temperatures in the Tropics could climb by
up to three degrees Celsius by
2100.
According
to U.N. scientists, current climate models predict a
global
warming of about 1.4 to 5.8 degrees Celsius
between 1990 and 2100.
The UNEP report said a second
group of the IPCC found that key cash crops
such
as coffee and tea in some of the major growing regions
will also be
vulnerable over the coming decades
to global warming.
"They fear that desperate farmers
will be forced into higher, cooler,
mountainous
areas intensifying pressure on sensitive forests and
threatening
wildlife and the quality and quantity
of water supplies," it said.
The findings on staple
food crops came from researchers at the Manila-based
International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).
"Billions
of people across the tropics depend on crops such as
rice, maize
and wheat, for their very survival,"
the report quoted UNEP Executive
Director Klaus
Toepfer as saying.
"These new findings indicate that
large numbers are facing acute hunger and
malnutrition
unless the world acts to reduce emissions of carbon
dioxide and
other greenhouse gases," he added.
MARRAKESH, Morocco - Government ministers from
around the world moved a step closer yesterday to
bringing a far-reaching treaty to combat global
warming into force after their officials reached a key
agreement.
Ministers were upbeat in addressing U.N. talks in
Marrakesh to define the practicalities of the pact
committing industrialised nations to cut their "greenhouse
gas" emissions by an average five percent of 1990 levels
by
2012.
Many were encouraged by a breakthrough in lower-level
talks late this week that put in place a system to ensure
that countries comply with their pollution targets -
previously seen as a stumbling block which could have
sunk the fragile treaty.
"The progress made thus far is solid and encouraging,"
Iran's Environment Minister Massoumeh Ebtekathe told
the
plenary session on behalf of the G77 group of developing
countries.
"The agreement reached last night is indeed a very good
outcome," she said.
The question of whether countries that emit more
greenhouse gases than allowed under the so-called Kyoto
Protocol of 1997 would face binding sanctions had been
thorny at recent similar forums, but many delegates
said it
now seemed settled.
"UNPRECEDENTED IN INTERNATIONAL LAW"
Environmental groups, which had accused Japan, Russia,
Canada and Australia of trying to wriggle out of a binding
sanctions regime for countries that miss their pollution
targets, welcomed the agreement.
"Binding consequences are definitely there," Jennifer
Morgan of the World Wildlife Fund said. "Countries now
know if they miss their targets there will be consequences."
Tuiloma Neroni Slade, Samoa's ambassador to the U.N.
who chaired the talks on compliance, called the compliance
system's strength "unprecedented in international law".
Ministers had agreed on the outline of a compliance
regime
at a meeting in Bonn in July, but squabbling in Marrakesh
over the legal fine print had cast the deal into doubt.
Stressing the importance of a climate change treaty,
U.N.
Secretary General Kofi Annan said the Kyoto process,
which was rejected by the United States in March, was
"a
victory for multilateralism"
"Indeed, joining forces against global threats to human
society and the planet has never been more important,"
he
said in a message read out to the conference by an envoy.
The United States faced a barrage of criticism when
it
pulled out of the treaty saying Kyoto's pollution-cutting
requirements for developed countries but not poorer
ones
would hurt the U.S. economy.
NO HINT OF A U.S. RETURN
U.S. Under-Secretary of State for Global Affairs Paula
Dobriansky gave no hint that Washington would return
to
the treaty President George W. Bush described as "fatally
flawed".
"Our collective long-term objective must be to create
a truly
global approach that stitches together actions by all
countries into a tapestry of national and international
cooperation," she told the conference.
Without the world's biggest polluter, all other major
developed countries must ratify Kyoto for it to come
into
force.
However, delegates said several obstacles remained before
ministers could agree on a framework which would give
countries enough legal certainty to ratify the four-year-old
pact.
The European Union, a vocal advocate of Kyoto, has said
it
will ratify it next year.
But delegates from Kyoto sceptics Russia and Japan,
whose support is essential to keep the treaty alive,
have
said their decision on ratification would depend on
an
acceptable outcome in Marrakesh, where the two-week
conference ends on Friday.
U.N. scientists say global warming could entail disastrous
consequences such as floods and droughts, with current
climate models predicting a global warming of up to
5.8
degrees Celsius by 2100.
Ministers still need to agree on whether Russia should
be
allowed to make greater use of its carbon-storing forests
to
set against its emissions target than was agreed in
Bonn.
In a compromise to keep Russia and Japan on board after
the U.S. withdrawal, many countries were allowed a limited
amount of such "carbon sinks" under the Bonn agreement.
But Russia said it was treated unfairly and has asked
for a
much greater allowance, a request the EU said it would
oppose.
Story by Robin Pomeroy
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
The United Nations conference is attempting to draft the legal language to give effect to the Kyoto Protocol, which was signed in the Japanese city in 1997. This should pave the way for the protocol's ratification next year.
Delegates from the European Union and developing countries say they are upbeat on the key issue of compliance - namely the commitment by countries to stick to pollution targets and the penalty system for those that break the limits.
Kyoto would commit signatories to a cut in their emissions of greenhouse gases - believed by many scientists to be warming the planet - by around 2% on 1990 levels.
European Union Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom said the progress already made augured well for a full agreement to emerge by the end of the conference on Friday.
"The atmosphere seems to be good now that we have solved some of the problems," she said.
But the head of the EU delegation, Belgian Energy Minister Olivier Deleuze, warned against over-optimism, saying the deal was not yet in plance.
Binding sanctions
One of the major talking points in Marrakech has surrounded the issue of whether countries that emit more greenhouse gases than allowed under the protocol should face binding sanctions.
But this issue seems to have been resolved.
"Binding consequences are definitely there," Jennifer Morgan of the World Wide Fund for Nature said. "Countries now know if they miss their targets there will be consequences."
UN scientists say human-induced climate change could entail disastrous consequences, such as floods and droughts, with current climate models forecasting a global warming of up to 5.8 degrees Celsius by 2100.
Climate science
Not all researchers, however, agree with the UN assessment on climate change. They question the scientific underpinnings of much of the modelling work.
And, they argue, even if human-induced climate change is a real phenomenon, Kyoto is an expensive technical fix that may not even work.
The US, under the direction of President George W Bush, has already repudiated the treaty entirely, saying it would harm its economy.
US representative Paula Dobriansky said climate change warranted "serious attention and real commitment" but reaffirmed President Bush's position against signing the treaty.
"Our corrective, long-term objective must be to truly create a global approach that stitches together actions by all countries into a tapestry of national action and international cooperation," she said.
To enter into force, Kyoto must be ratified by 55 countries, responsible for 55% of emissions in 1990. This means that without the US - the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases - all the other big developed countries must be onside for the whole process to be carried through.
After clearing that hurdle, the negotiators on Wednesday handed over the final phase of talks to their ministers, to complete the landmark treaty.
Ten days of tough bargaining at the U.N. climate conference produced the breakthrough late Tuesday in the four-year effort to refine the Kyoto Protocol, the bedrock 1997 agreement by industrial countries to cut emissions of greenhouse gases.
Countries like Japan and Canada had sought to avoid a punishment clause in the treaty.
Several other contentious issues remained for Cabinet ministers and other policy-makers, who were convening for the final three days of the two-week conference.
By Friday, the legal text of the rule book for implementing the Kyoto treaty should be finished and ready for governments and parliaments to consider for ratification. Delegates said the agreement - the first compulsory treaty on the environment - may become international law by mid-2002.
The European Union issued another call on Washington to reconsider its rejection of the treaty, which President Bush has described as unfair and too costly for American business.
``We still hope the United States will come back into the process,'' said Margot Wallstrom, the European environment commissioner, admitting that a reversal of U.S. policy was unlikely anytime soon.
She said the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington might prompt the Americans to be ``more willing to enter into multilateral work,'' including on climate change.
The protocol requires industrial countries to reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases - chiefly carbon dioxide from factories and vehicles - by an average 5.2 percent from 1990 levels by 2012.
The United States emits nearly one-fourth of the world's human-generated carbon dioxide.
But the treaty also provides mechanisms for countries to partially achieve targets without reducing real emissions. They may buy or trade ``carbon credits'' in the international marketplace, or earn credits by financing projects that help developing countries avoid adding carbon emissions.
Scientists say the accumulation of carbon dioxide is causing temperatures to rise, glaciers to melt and rain patterns to shift in ways that will disrupt agriculture and the world economy over the next century.
Legal experts exchanged handshakes and hugs after adopting the text on compliance, which had threatened to undermine the political agreement negotiated in Bonn three months ago and which had put Japan's ratification of the protocol in doubt.
Without the backing of both Washington and Tokyo, the treaty would have virtually no chance of ratification. It must be endorsed by 55 countries, including those emitting 55 percent of greenhouse gases in 1990, the accord's benchmark year.
Under the compliance accord, countries that miss their targets must make up the loss in the next period by cutting emissions an extra 30 percent. They also must submit a plan on how they will meet their requirements, and will not be allowed to offset the reductions by trading or using other mechanisms.
In a major concession by Japan, the negotiators agreed to recommend to a future conference that the penalties be ``legally binding.''
Today at the start of the Ministerial level of the Climate conference in Marrakech (COP7), the European Union stated its determination to reach decisions which will enable the Kyoto Protocol to enter into force.
“The European Union is determined to uphold the integrity of the political agreement reached in Bonn and calls upon the parties to respect strictly the Bonn agreement and to maintain the political consensus and the spirit of cooperation that prevailed at COP6bis. All the element of the Bonn Agreement must be faithfully translated in legal text.”, said Belgian State Secretary Olivier Deleuze, the head of the EU delegation.
EU Environment Commissioner Margot Wallström added: “ We are here in Marrakech to finish a job. Some intense negotiations still lie ahead, though. We are clearly not there yet. More work needs to be done on quite a number of issues. We are very pleased, however, that Parties were able to agree on a text on compliance yesterday. I was also pleased to be able to present the Kyoto Package put forward by the Commission last month to the Conference today. With this package we have confirmed our ambition to maintain EU leadership in the fight against climate change and our resolve to take action at home”.
The EU was instrumental in securing agreement during the evening of 6th November on operational rules for the compliance system, which will regulate the consequences for breaking the rules of the Kyoto Protocol. The EU believes that solutions can be found to the issues which are still outstanding. None of these should stand in the way of ratification, according to a united delegation. As the Environment Council confirmed in Luxembourg last week, the EU is already determined to go ahead with ratification.
M. Deleuze also pointed out that, for the first time, the COP meets on African soil. “As we all know, this continent, which is already seriously impacted by consequences of persistent droughts and desertification, is also likely to be among the most severely affected by the climate change”, he said.
Ms. Wallström said: “The tragic events of 11 September emphasise the need for coordinated, multilateral responses on issues which are impossible for countries to solve individually. Climate change is one such very crucial issue ”.
Outcomes from the Marrakech Conference will also include agreement on governance issues, i.e. the composition and voting procedures for the Joint Implementation (JI) Supervisory Committee as well as voting procedures of the Executive Board for the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). In addition, is foreseen the appointment of the expert group on technology transfer. They are indispensable to make the CDM and JI operational and to promote further actions in the field of technology transfer. Agreement has also yet to be concluded on the possibilities for using and swapping emission credits, including whether they can be carried over to future periods (“banking”).
Contact : Vincent Georis 0474 98 48 69
They say this is because these "carbon sinks" are themselves the product of temporary changes in land use.
They believe the entire land-based carbon sink could ultimately disappear.
The findings are important for a world keen to find natural methods of absorbing CO2.
The study, reported in the journal Nature, is especially relevant for the meeting in the Moroccan city of Marrakech of signatories to the Kyoto Protocol, the international treaty on tackling climate change.
Government ministers have taken charge of the negotiations at the meeting, of about 160 countries, which is due to end on 9 November with agreement on the protocol's detailed working.
Recent sink
Sinks soak up some of the CO2 emitted into the atmosphere by human activities (many climatologists believe CO2 and other gases are intensifying the climate's natural variability).
But exactly how much carbon they absorb is unknown. Scientists believe the land and the oceans together absorb about half the CO2 given off by the burning of fossil fuels.
The 30 authors of the Nature report say: "Atmospheric CO2 and oxygen data confirm that the terrestrial biosphere was largely neutral with respect to net carbon exchange during the 1980s, but became a net carbon sink in the 1990s.
"This recent sink can be largely attributed to northern extra-tropical areas, and is roughly split between America and Eurasia.
"Tropical land areas, however, were approximately in balance with respect to carbon exchange, implying a carbon sink that offset emissions due to tropical deforestation."
In North America, China and Europe, the authors say, the key factors were probably the regrowth of forests, often after farmland was abandoned in the 1980s and 1990s. A reduction in the frequency of fires also contributed.
Regional differences
Other factors probably include changes in foliage, plant litter and soil microbes. These in turn are affected by changes in photosynthesis, respiration, fire and insect outbreaks, influenced by climate fluctuations such as El Nino.
Growing trees absorb net quantities of CO2, and the higher levels of CO2 and nitrogen in the atmosphere are themselves stimulating tree and plant growth.
But the researchers expect these effects to reach saturation point and cease to have an effect.
They found big regional variations in the strength of sinks. Much of Siberia, for example, has warmed by about 0.5 degrees Celsius a decade since the 1960s.
An increase in wildfires and insect damage appears to have changed it from a sink into a temporary source of CO2.
World without sinks
In a possible pointer to future changes, the authors say: "Globally, there appears to be a net release of carbon to the atmosphere during warm and dry years, and a net uptake during cooler years."
The lead author is Professor David Schimel, of the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena, Germany.
He said: "Although carbon sinks have a role to play in absorbing excess CO2, it is possible that the net global terrestrial carbon sink may disappear altogether in the future."
Representatives from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) said common sense was at times sorely missing in documents being prepared for the ministerial meeting on climate change from Wednesday to Friday which will conclude the two-week Marrakesh conference, the first major international gathering since the September 11 attacks on the United States.
Non-bureaucrats and non-specialists were left out in the cold and the opaque language, not to say jargon, used at plenary sessions, workshops and in hundreds of documents was unlikely to be easily understood by the majority of people including the ones most affected by climate change, they said.
"There is now talk of privatising the air we breathe," said Tom Goldtooth of the U.S.-based Indigenous Environmental Network, in reference to an "emissions trading" scheme being planned.
The scheme is part of the Kyoto Protocol's "flexible mechanisms" and would allow one country to buy the right to emit from another country which has alrady reduced its emissions sufficiently and has therefore "spare" emissions reductions.
TRADE AIR?
The Kyoto Protocol, forged in 1997 in Japan, seeks to cut emissions of greenhouse gases - gases that trap heat in the earth's atmosphere - by about five percent from 1990 levels by 2012.
It will go into force once ratified by 55 countries responsible for 55 percent of carbom dioxide emisssions in 1990. So far, 40 countries have ratified it, 39 of them non-industrialised nations.
"With emissions trading, corporations have found a new way of continuing their ruthless commodification of nature," said Goldtooth, a native American. "They've lost touch with real issues that affect people. In my language, it is hard for people to understand what it means to trade air".
He and other representatives of indigenous peoples deplored that the world's 350 million indigenous peoples still had no voice at the U.N. climate talks, unlike at other U.N. forums.
Sounding a more favourable note, Mark Kenber of the World Wildlife Fund said emission trading was not the evil capitalistic scheme presented by some.
"If emission trading delivers what you want it to deliver one would be in favour, but if it does not do that and expands the loopholes that exist, we would be against it," he said at a workshop on the sidelines of the conference.
Speaking at a news conference, the NGOs' representatives gathered under a broad-based coalition called Climate Justice insisted on the need for big corporations to effectively adhere to guidelines that would protect the environment.
"Only 122 companies in the world are responsible for 80 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions," said Amit Srivastava, of San Francisco-based CorpWatch. "And just four private global oil corporations produce 10 percent of all CO2 emissions".
Advocates of the Kyoto Protocol, which the United States denounced last March as "fatally flawed" and harmful to its economy, agree it will not solve all environmental problems but hope it will set up a compulsory framework on which to build in the next decades.
The Marrakesh meeting, attended by some 2,500 delegates, is known as the COP7, the seventh conference of the parties to a U.N. treaty signed at the first Earth Summit in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro.
Story by Gilles Trequesser
While officials from some 160 countries meeting in Marrakesh grappled with the fineprint of a 1997 treaty aimed at cutting the "greenhouse gases" blamed for global warming, banks, energy companies and manuafacturers were already eyeing ways to cut costs - or even make money - out of the climate pact. Seventeen companies including oil giant BP , Japan's Mitsubishi Corp and German utility RWE , have joined a scheme to test out the so-called clean development mechanism - one of the elements of the complex Kyoto deal that are being finalised in the Moroccan city.
In return for investing in renewable power projects in poorer countries, the firms will receive credits for the amount of carbon dioxide - the main gas capped by Kyoto - that would otherwise have been emitted through dirtier energy sources.
The firms hope an agreement in Marrakesh will allow them to use the credits to offset CO2 cuts imposed on them by their own governments. Better still, the rules might allow them to sell CO2 credits at a profit via a yet to be established emissions trading scheme.
NEW GOODS TO MARKET
"We are creating a new good that can enter the market," the World Bank's Ken Newcombe, manager of the "prototype carbon fund" (PCF) told a news conference on the sidelines of the negotiations.
"Emissions that our shareholders (the 17 companies plus the governments of Japan, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands) intend to purchase are destined either to help meet their targets ..or, as there are banks involved, they could inject them into global trade," Newcombe said.
The Kyoto Protocol commits industrialised countries to reduce their greenhouse emissions by an average of five percent of 1990 levels by 2012. The pollutants are blamed by many scientists for causing potentially disastrous global warming.
But the treaty also allows those countries to offset some of those reductions by investing in clean technologies in the developing world and by buying emissions credits from other countries that have already reached their targets.
The final rules of how these complex systems will operate are due to be finalised by environment ministers who arrive in Marrakesh next Wednesday.
Presenting the scheme's first annual report, Newcombe gave examples of where its $135 million resources were being spent - a plan to buy $3.9 million of emissions reductions over the next 15-20 years from two small hyrdo projects in Uganda.
He said this would probably result in an estimated buying price of $3 per tonne of CO2, a fraction of the amount western policy makers have said even cheap emissions reductions measures would cost in the west.
The European Commission has said such measures would cost "less than" 20 euros per tonne of CO2 saved.
This could mean a handsome profit for those companies investing now, if on a future emissions market CO2 credits change hands for that kind of money.
But Newcombe said that remained a significant "if" while increasingly governments were still haggling over the Kyoto rules which may yet create difficult emissions market conditions or fall apart completely.
"PCF shareholders are taking a risk," he said.
Story by Robin Pomeroy
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
Tokyo has privately conveyed its decision to Washington, the sources said, adding Environment Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi will visit the U.S. on her way to ongoing global climate talks in Marrakech to convey and explain the move in person because U.S. government officials have expressed concern over the development.
Kawaguchi will tell them Japan believes the protocol is the only international framework for combating global warming and that a new system to facilitate reaching reduction targets easily has been included in it, the sources said.
She will also stress there are economic benefits in implementing domestic anti-global warming measures in a bid for the U.S. to return to the protocol, which it ditched in March.
Japan wants to have the Diet ratify it during next year's regular parliamentary session along with a revised law to promote measures against global warming.
With Washington's emphasis on global cooperation foll