Old problems continue to haunt climate change talks

Rupak D Sharma

Asia News Network - 03-04-2008

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The United Nations Climate Change Talks currently underway in Bangkok faced the first stumbling block on Wednesday after the developed countries insisted on setting voluntary targets, instead of legally binding targets, to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Addressing the conference, which commenced on Monday, the Japanese delegation said: “The purpose of setting a long-term goal (on reducing GHG emissions) is for parties to share a common recognition on the future path. Therefore, such a goal should be considered as a non-legally binding shared vision.” The Japanese viewpoint received the backings of Canada and the US.

In the words of Marcelo Furtado, campaign director of Greenpeace Brazil: “What Japan, on behalf of developed countries, is trying to say is, instead of you setting targets (on GHG emissions) for us, we (the developed countries) will tell you how much contribution we can make to reduce the carbon emissions.”

Currently under the Kyoto Protocol, 37 industrialised countries, including Japan, and European Community have agreed to reduce GHG emissions by 5 per cent between 1992 and 2012.

However, since the UN meeting held in August last year a proposal for reduction of 25-40 per cent has been floated, which has received strong support from European Community. Japan, the fifth largest emitter of greenhouse gases, has not made any comments on this.

Although the Bangkok Conference is not intended at obliging countries to make clear-cut commitments on emissions reduction, remarks such as the one made by Japan are feared could spoil the environment and stall negotiation process, where the developing countries are looking on to the developed countries to make the first move.

If something like this happens, “it will totally go against the mandate of the December 2007 Bali Conference”, Furtado told Asia News Network on the sidelines of the conference.

It is known that the Bali talks were not able to persuade developed countries to set firm targets to reduce emissions. However, it was able to create a general consensus on moving ahead with urgency by strengthening on-going work and enhancing climate change actions in the future.

“But what some are trying to do here is undo years and years of negotiations …. And that is not taking us not anywhere closer to solving the crisis,” Furtado said. “So the lack of political will is clear despite the pressure we got in Bali.”

Bali talks were held with the intention of providing a successor to Kyoto Protocol (KP), which expires in 2012. The current UN-led climate change conference underway in Bangkok is a follow up meeting on the Bali conference, where steps should be spelled out for signing a post-2012 climate change agreement in Copenhagen, Denmark next year.

The main objective of Bangkok Conference--participated by almost 1,200 representatives of 162 countries--is to break down Bali Road Map into manageable, bite-sized chunks so that clear work programmes are formulated to implement projects related to reducing GHG emissions.

“We now stand at the dawn of a very busy one and half years and we need to respond to those expectations,” Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of UN Framework Convention on Climate Change had said in his inaugural speech on Monday. However, expressing optimism he said: “Challenging as this may seem, it is also an opportunity to take cooperation to new level.”

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