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U.S. Returns to Dialogue on Climate Change |
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By Marcela Valente*
The United States and the OPEC countries agreed to participate in
a May 2005 seminar on climate change, but they reject new negotiations.
''It's a positive step,'' says Raúl Estrada Oyuela, who proposed
the face-saving meeting, approved at the close of the 10th Conference
on Climate Change, in Buenos Aires.
BUENOS AIRES - The United States, world leader
in emissions of ''greenhouse'' gases, will return to the table for
international talks on climate change, a dialogue it abandoned three
years ago.
But the meeting will take place as a consultative seminar only,
and will not pave the way for a new set of multilateral negotiations.
The 10th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (COP-10) ended Saturday, a day later
than scheduled, in Buenos Aires, with the approval of the Argentine
initiative to hold a seminar of governmental experts in 2005 to
''exchange information'' about ways to fight global climate change.
''Proceedings of the seminar will be made available by the secretariat
to Parties for their consideration, bearing in mind that this seminar
does not open any negotiations leading to new commitments,'' states
the text that was approved after 13 days of deliberations amongst
delegates from more than 180 countries and from observer organizations.
''The United States has a very clear position,'' Raúl Estrada Oyuela,
author of the proposal for the 2005 seminar, said as the conference
came to an end. ''They don't believe in the Kyoto Protocol, but
agreed to participate in an exercise of information exchange, and
I think that is a positive step.''
In 2001, U.S. President George W. Bush withdrew his country's signature
from the Kyoto Protocol, a 1997 treaty obligating the industrialized
countries to curb their greenhouse gas emissions -- which are responsible
for global warming -- to below their 1990 levels, during a period
running from 2008 to 2012.
The idea to hold an additional seminar, heartily supported by the
European Union and most of the developing countries, originally
called for two meetings during 2005, but the final resolution was
limited to just one meeting, to take place in May, in Bonn, Germany.
The proposal met with resistance from the United States and from
some of the members of the Group of 77 (G77) developing nations,
plus China, and in particular from India.
Also voicing opposition was OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries), which refused to speed up the discussion of a second
period of emissions-curbing commitments to begin in 2012 -- when
the Kyoto Protocol expires.
India proposed including in the agreement a paragraph that would
explicitly establish that the seminar would not lead to future commitments
for developing countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
Developing countries are not subject to emissions abatement commitments
under the Kyoto pact.
The EU and Argentina considered the addition redundant, but India's
proposal was backed by several developing countries and triggered
a prolonged debate that lasted beyond the scheduled close of COP-10
-- Dec. 17 -- until an agreement was reached that satisfied all
parties.
The position of Washington and of the OPEC nations, particularly
Saudi Arabia, came under fire in Buenos Aires from a group of environmental
organizations that are part of the international Climate Action
Network.
The Network awarded its ''Fossil of the Day'' throughout the conference
to the country that had contributed least to the process of curbing
climate change. The ironic prize refers to the fact that fossil
fuels are a leading source of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse
gas.
The final "Fossils" went to the United States and Saudi Arabia.
Climate Action Network's website states: ''The Bush Administration
and Saudi Arabia have worked hand in hand over the last two weeks
to undermine any progress to curb global warming.''
The activists said the U.S. and Saudi position was ''immoral'',
because it blocked poor countries from getting much needed support
for adaptation to climate change. Washington and Riyadh argued that
the eventual decline in fossil fuel purchases would hurt the economies
of the petroleum exporting countries.
That stance prevented the G77 from bringing a unified position before
the industrialized countries to obtain a bigger increase in financial
resources for adaptation.
COP-10 ended with the adoption of the ''Buenos Aires Program of
Work on Adaptation and Response Measures'', a long list of actions
to help developing countries prepare themselves for confronting
climate changes -- but not enough funding was pledged to ensure
implementation.
As the conference began on Dec. 6, the EU announced its pledge to
increase annual adaptation funding from 100 million to 420 million
dollars, but at the close of the meeting there were no new commitments.
Nor was there progress towards the creation of a special fund for
adaptation efforts in what the United Nations has designated as
''least developed countries''.
The pledged funding is ''very inadequate,'' Jennifer Morgan, of
the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), told Tierramérica. She said there
are countries that have already suffered the severe impacts of flooding,
drought and hurricanes with losses costing much more than the EU's
proposed 420 million dollars.
Natural disasters -- which experts agree may have been intensified
by climate change -- cost the international insurance industry more
than 35 billion dollars in 2004, twice the sum for 2003, according
to figures from insurance company Munich Re, distributed during
COP-10 by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).
''Industrialized countries, the leading greenhouse gas producers,
bear the greatest responsibility in mitigating climate change and
also in transferring resources and technologies to developing countries''
so that they can adapt to it, Ricardo Sánchez, UNEP director for
Latin America and the Caribbean, said in a conversation with Tierramérica.
Hurricane Mitch caused 8.5 million dollars in damages in Central
America, Belize lost 75 percent of its forests due to a plague of
southern pine beetles, and glaciers are melting in the Andes Mountains
-- these are just some of the phenomena the region has faced in
recent years that are related to climate change, according to UNEP.
Latin America and the Caribbean ''have a high degree of vulnerability.
If we have to dedicate the limited resources of our countries to
deal with these impacts (of climate change), it will be very difficult
to achieve sustainable development,'' Sánchez said.
* Marcela Valente is an IPS correspondent.
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