New Delhi: another step down the road to fighting climate change

Date: 24/10/02

By Karen Carstens

'WE ALL grumble about the weather, but nothing is done about it.'

Surely these words, attributed to US novelist Mark Twain, will not apply to the eighth meeting of the Conference of the Parties' (COP 8) on climate change that began yesterday in New Delhi, India.

The talks, which run from 23 October - 3 November, are yet another stepping stone on the path to reducing global greenhouse gas emissions envisaged by the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. A noble and necessary goal, most would agree.

But it won't be a glamorous event.

'This will probably be a very technical conference,' said Rolf Linkohr, one of five MEPs due to arrive in India to follow the proceedings. 'It won't be as big or get as much play in the media as Johannesburg did.'

Despite 'mere' observer status at the conference, the MEPs feel they have an important part to play in exchanging views with their counterparts from national parliaments all over the world, said the German Social Democrat: 'For us this is like a global marketplace of ideas.'

The conference's location is significant because it will signal a willingness to get developing countries involved now.

They have no obligations to reduce their emissions under the Kyoto agreement, but have clearly indicated they want to be part of the process at a later stage in the game, Linkohr said.

In addition, the MEPs hope that 'face time' with members of the Russian Duma and even the largely Kyoto-sceptical US Congress could pay off in the long-run if these countries are ever to ratify the protocol. 'After all, they're the ones who must decide in the end,' he said.

The United Nations adopted the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, or UNFCC, at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. The Convention forms the basis for the Kyoto Protocol on climate change adopted in December 1997 by COP 3; the global climate policy sessions have been held annually since 1995.

At the landmark 'COP 6 Part II', in Bonn, in July 2001, a follow-up to the original COP 6 held at The Hague in November 2000, the Kyoto Protocol was salvaged when a breakthrough compromise was struck after a night of intensive talks.

Kyoto required industrialised countries to cut their emissions of six greenhouse gases by an average of 5.2 below 1990 levels before 2012 - the EU's overall target was 8. To the dismay of environmentalists, Bonn reduced that figure to about 2. Even this was still too much for the US, which had rejected the protocol four months earlier, but it opened the way for other major countries, such as Japan, to ratify it.

At COP 7, held last November in Marrakech, Morocco, a number of compromises to the organisation of the protocol were hammered out. COP 8 is largely about dealing with the 'leftovers' of that meeting. Details still need to be worked out, for example, on how exactly to handle 'carbon sinks' - forests which, to a degree, soak up greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Another leftover relates to the so-called Clean Development Mechanism. One of three 'flexibility' schemes laid out at Kyoto, it allows industrialised countries to earn 'emissions credits' in return for investing in emission-reducing projects in developing countries.

The other two mechanisms are 'international emissions trading' and 'joint implementation', which permits industrialised countries to cooperatively implement projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

A member of the European Commission's COP 8 delegation, which will keep MEPs in the know with daily updates in New Delhi, said that if Russia ratifies the protocol, as it pledged to do in Johannesburg, then it could finally enter into force.

While COP 8 is not expected to produce as many nail-biting moments as some of its predecessors, it will be the first meeting to feature a nifty new format involving round-table discussions between environment ministers and other high-level policymakers.

These meetings will come under three headings: stocktaking; climate change and sustainable development; and a wrap-up session to produce the declaration that will be the conference's final document.

According to Linkohr, the gatherings will provide for 'more openness and transparency' and be more exciting than just watching 'boring ministers' stand up and read from their papers.

The conference also aims to lay the groundwork for global climate policy beyond 2012, when new agreements must be crafted to follow up on Kyoto. COP 8, the Commission official said, is important 'to have the basis for future negotiations, so we are all singing from the same hymn sheet'.

As 'one of the few parties' to have implemented not only the climate convention, but also the protocol, the EU aims to play a leadership role in this process and get as many countries on board as possible, she said.

According to the Copenhagen-based European Environment Agency, overall greenhouse gas emissions fell by 4 between 1990 and 1999, taking the EU halfway to its Kyoto target of 8.

Kyoto will enter into force once ratified by 55 countries accounting for 55 of CO2 emissions in the industrialised world. If Russia ratifies as expected in early 2003, the protocol will enter into force three months thereafter. Canada is another key player the EU hopes will ratify soon.

The EU ratified en masse before this year's Johannesburg summit in August.

'Once we have Russia and Canada on board, we're set,' said Linkohr.

'Then we definitely wouldn't need the Americans anymore.'

Preview of the eighth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 8) on climate change, New Delhi, India, 23 October-3 November 2002.