Nations Seek to Work Around U.S. Climate Roadblocks

MILAN, Italy, December 1, 2003 (ENS) - Italian Environment Minister Altero Matteoli today told delegates to the latest round of climate change talks that the world must move beyond the Kyoto climate protocol to convince those countries who have not ratified the protocol, such as the United States, to make "other deals on the environment."

Speaking at the Ninth World Climate Conference at the Fiera Milano Congress Center, Matteoli said, "Italy is already thinking about moving beyond Kyoto, not just the situation after it because that would mean losing hope of the protocol being ratified. Our goal must be to attain the limits laid down in the Kyoto Protocol in any case and by the deadline it sets, the end of 2012."

Italian Environment Minister Altero Matteoli addresses the opening of the Ninth Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Milan. (Photo courtesy IISD/ENB-Leila Mead)

The chief U.S. negotiator to the conference, Dr. Harlan Watson, told reporters the International Partnership for the Hydrogen Economy is one of three pillars of U.S. climate policy. This initiative involves 15 nations and the European Commission to coordinate multilateral research and develop programs to accelerate the transition to a global hydrogen economy, he said.

Hydrogen fuel cells to power buildings or vehicles are electrochemical devices that convert the energy of a chemical reaction directly into electricity. The hydrogen fuel combines with oxygen from air, and electricity is formed without combustion or pollution. Water and heat are the only byproducts.

"Climate change is an issue of great importance to the United States," Watson said. The Bush administration is taking concrete actions and investing billions of dollars annually to address global climate change, he said at a media briefing today.

The Bush administration's national goal of reducing U.S. greenhouse gas intensity - greenhouse gas emissions per dollar of Gross Domestic Product - by 18 percent over the next 10 years, is a 30 percent improvement over business as usual, Watson said.

"Like an absolute emissions target required under the Kyoto Protocol, an intensity reduction target of this magnitude does require real effort," Watson said. "Meeting the President's commitment will achieve more than 500 million metric tons of carbon equivalent emissions over the next 10 years, 2002-2012. That's roughly an amount equal to taking 70 million autos off U. S. highways."

By contrast, the Kyoto Protocol requires 37 industrialized countries to reduce their emission of six greenhouse gases an average of 5.2 percent of 1990 emissions during the five year period 2008 to 2012.

Dr. Harlan Watson is senior climate negotiator and special representative at the U.S. Department of State. (Photo courtesy U.S. Climate Change Science Program)

And in addition to carbon sequestration and hydrogen, advanced nuclear technologies would power a new generation of reactors, Watson said. Under the U.S. led Generation IV Program 10 nations are working on new fission reactor designs that will be "safer and more economical and securer," he said.

But environmental organizations in Milan representing the 340 nongovernmental organizations of the Climate Action Network are not convinced that the U.S. approach is doing anything to reduce global warming.

Jennifer Morgan, director of the WWF climate change program, said, "White House delegates are coming to Milan to undermine this treaty, even though President Bush pledged not to block other countries from moving forward. The Bush team must be ignored - the governments that want to save the climate have their work cut out for them," she said.

The proof of the Bush regime's lack of commitment to tackling climate change is evident by its actions, said Jeff Fiedler, of the Natural Resources Defence Council. "The White House is pretending its talk about science and technology is serious, but at home and abroad it opposes any actions to reduce emissions now."

To take effect, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol needs countries accounting for 55 percent of developed nations' emissions of gases like carbon dioxide from cars and factories to sign up. The protocol has so far reached 44 percent.

Russia accounts for 17 percent and is crucial for the treaty's entry into force, since the world's biggest polluter, the United States, pulled out its 36 percent in 2001 when the Bush administration took office. But Russia has not decided whether or not to ratify, and the decision will likely be delayed until after Russian Presidential elections are held in the spring of 2004.

Developing countries are the ones that will suffer the effects of global climate change created by industrialized countries, said a South African NGO representative. "In the rich countries there are still mercenary professionals paid to put loopholes into the climate treaty, while the developing world is forced to deal with the impacts of climate change," said Richard Worthington of Earthlife Africa Johannesburg.

"Any discussions of bilateral agreements are inappropriate at this meeting and must be sidelined. The problem is global and must be addressed at a global level," he said.

Hungarian Environment Minister Miklós Persányi, who was elected president of the conference by acclamation today, said that although the Kyoto Protocol has not yet entered into force, its ratification by numerous Parties demonstrates its importance.

UNFCCC Executive Secretary Joke Waller-Hunter in Milan (Photo courtesy IISD/ENB-Leila Mead)

But fresh from an Earth observing conference gathered to strengthen worldwide climate monitoring, U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Conrad Lautenbacher told reporters that "from a science perspective there still remains a great deal of uncertainty in our ability to understand what is going on today."

"Models that you look at that project these effects 100 years into the future are clearly suspect," Lautenbacher said. "And we need to be careful because when we invest a great deal of money in either mitigation or adaptation we may not get a second chance. It will take a great deal of effort to be able to respond to some of the potential consequences that we see today," he said. "We want to make sure that our investments are well placed."

Still, island states such as the Pacific nation of Tuvalu are already feeling the effects of rising sea levels, a fact the international community is noting in its election of Enele Sopoaga of Tuvalu as the vice president of COP9.

"We can't afford to wait any longer," said Steven Guilbeault, of Greenpeace International. "The impacts of climate change are already affecting the lives of millions of people, in the form of the spread of vector borne diseases to new regions, sea level rise, increased desertification, water resource shortages and more extreme weather events."

"Ministers at this meeting must speed up the process," said Guilbeault, "and make sure that practical measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are put in place."