[NYTr] Rich nations must honor climate change pledge

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by Dave Muller (southnews) 

AFP - Sep 25, 2007
(no URL provided)


Rich nations must honor climate change pledge: developing countries

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - - Developing countries urged rich economies at 
the UN's global warming summit here Monday to honour their pledges of 
curbing greenhouse-gas pollution and help poor nations cope with the 
impact of climate change.

"We strongly believe that no adaptation plan or strategy would be 
effective without enhanced financing and greater technological support 
and access for developing countries," Pakistani Environment Minister 
Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat said at the one-day summit.

Faisal spoke on behalf of the Group of 77, a bloc that despite its name 
represents about 130 developing countries, including the emerging giant 
China.

He ruled out demands from some quarters that developing countries
accept targeted curbs on their emissions.

A key argument cited by US President George W. Bush for abandoning the 
Kyoto Protocol in 2001 was that the UN treaty only imposed these limits 
on developed countries and not on countries such as China and India, 
which have become major polluters in their own right.

Rich countries are responsible for some 70 percent of the carbon
dioxide (CO2) in the world today, as they became the first to burn the
coal, oil and gas that spurred the Industrial Revolution.

Developing countries are wary about being coaxed into any binding 
targets, fearful that the cost of implementing such promises could
brake their rise out of poverty.

Faisal said rich countries should deepen their reduction commitments in 
the next phase of the Kyoto Protocol and also help poorer nations to 
avoid increases in their own pollution and tackle the impacts of
climate change.

"The international community should first extend the first commitment
of the Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012, all Annex 1 countries should accede
to the Protocol and fully implement their commitments," he said.

Annex 1 countries are developed economies under the Protocol. The
United States and Australia are the last major Annex 1 holdouts to
refuse to ratify the accord.

Negotiations for the post-2012 period enter a crucial stage in December 
at talks in Bali, Indonesia, gathering parties to Kyoto's parent
treaty, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

"A global strategy will not work if it does not include pro-development 
and pro-poor measures," said Indonesian President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono.

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said developed countries should 
"continue to take the lead in reducing emissions after 2012."

Developing countries "should also take pro-active measures and control 
the growth of greenhouse-gas emissions to the best of their ability and 
in keeping with their particular conditions," said Yang.

Indian Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram pointed out that
India's per-capita emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) "is among the
lowest in the world -- it is approximately one tonne per annum, as
against a world average of four tonnes per annum."

"Currently, developing countries bear an inordinate share of the burden 
of climate change, though this is due to the high level of emissions of 
developed countries," he said.

Kenya's environment minister David Mwiraria proposed that rich nations 
cut emissions by at least 30 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.

"In the post 2012 climate regime, one of the critical design features 
has to be equity," he said.

Small island developing states said they should be given priority in
any global fund set up to cope with climate change.

It is "the single most important threat" facing their development, 
security and territorial existence, said Grenada's Prime Minister Keith 
Mitchell, speaking on behalf of the small island states.

The United States later this week will launch its own process among 16 
major polluting economies -- an initiative that defenders of Kyoto fear 
could undermine the slower but inclusive UNFCCC process and lead to an 
unambitious, voluntary deal among a small club.