An atmosphere of common goals?

By Anna McLauchlin

Date: 26/05/05

Negotiations on measures to tackle climate change after 2012 have produced an atmosphere of mutual understanding but as yet no discernible closing of the gap between the EU and other countries.

The United Nations held a conference of 500 government experts in Bonn earlier this month that was intended to prepare for more formal talks to be held in Montreal in December.

Under the Kyoto Protocol - which commits participating industrialised countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by an average of 5.2% in 2008-12 - ministers are supposed to consider the post-2012 period this year, including the issue of emissions from developing countries.

A senior Commission official said that the Bonn talks had been the first occasion on which some of the views of developing countries had been aired, providing a foundation on which to base future discussions.

At the conference, South Africa called for a 'Montreal mandate' to formalise the issue for December, and Brazil and China demanded an improvement in Kyoto's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), under which industrialised countries receive carbon credits when they invest in emission reduction projects in developing countries.

But India was less positive about the Kyoto Protocol. Surya Sethi, an energy adviser from the country's Planning Commission, said that industrialised nations were failing in their drive to cut emissions. He argued that business-driven initiatives like the CDM should be made part of public policy.

"Now we understand where countries like India are coming from and that's important because then we can start talking," said the Commission official. He said that there was broad consensus on the urgent need to combat climate change and acknowledgement that Kyoto would not be sufficient to tackle the problem.

James L. Connaughton, senior environmental and natural resources adviser to US President George W. Bush, also hailed a very "positive" conference, saying that the US had given a presentation that was "complementary to a number of other presentations from developed countries as well as key developing countries".

He added: "The issue of climate change continues to attract outside interest in the differences in process steps and does not focus nearly enough on the massive common ground."

Beyond the increased transparency, however, there was little sign at the conference that the different parties had actually shifted their positions.

The Bush administration is still adamant that it will not sign up to targets and is pushing for technology partnerships for a breakthrough in reducing emissions.

Connaughton said that any post-Kyoto arrangement would be based on emissions-cutting partnerships, such as the one it has struck with 14 nations on methane recovery ('Methane to Markets Initiative').

"The form [post-Kyoto] will take shape around this set of established multilateral and bilateral arrangements, because that's where the action is," he said.

But the European Commission is still convinced that this is not enough. "The US is taking steps in the right direction but if we want to have a real impact we must broaden these partnerships to include more countries and deepen them in terms of the action taken," said the official.

He said that the EU did not want to "put forward a blueprint" but instead listen to others to see how to move forward.

"But it is too early to think that Montreal will bring a new Kyoto," he warned.

Report from the twenty-second sessions of the Subsidiary Bodies and seminar of governmental experts of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, in Bonn, May 2005.

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change: Homepage http://unfccc.int/2860.php

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