Climate Talks: World of Problems, Handful of Solutions

MILAN, Italy, December 12, 2003 (ENS) - Climate change remains the most important global challenge to humanity, and its adverse effects are already a reality in all parts of the world, ministers at the United Nations climate conference agreed today in Milan.

The 188 countries that are Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) wound up 12 days of negotiations today after adopting two dozen legal decisions and exploring many options for limiting greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to the impacts of global warming.

Attended by more than 5,000 participants, including 95 ministers, the conference attempted to stimulate further action by national governments, civil society and the private sector and to prepare for the Kyoto Protocol’s entry into force.

Conference President Miklós Persányi of Hungary (All photos courtesy of IISD/ENB-Leila Mead except where noted)

Participants emphasized that the Kyoto Protocol to the UNFCCC represents a significant first step towards realizing the Convention’s goal of stabilizing atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases at safe levels and called for its immediate entry into force.

The protocol sets binding limits on six greenhouse gases emitted by 37 industrialized nations during the five year period 2008 to 2012.

Although 120 countries have ratified the protocol, it cannot take effect until countries accounting for 55 percent of developed nations' carbon dioxide emissions in 1990 ratify.

Since the United States, which accounts for about 25 percent of developed nations' CO2 emissions has backed away from the protocol, Russia's ratification is needed to bring it into force. Russia, with its 17 percent of the CO2 emissions, has still not declared which way it will go.

Even so, the protocol already is changing the way decisionmakers think about climate, energy and investment.

Ministers noted that economic growth and climate change policies are compatible and, if action is taken at an early stage, economic gains can be made.

U.S. Under Secretary of State Paula Dobriansky, head of the U.S. delegation, said the United States recognizes that international collaboration is crucial for an effective, global response to the complex challenge of climate change over the long term.

U.S. Under Secretary of State Paula Dobriansky co-chaired Thursday's ministerial roundtable discussion.

She said President Bush's fiscal year 2004 budget calls for more than $4.3 billion to address climate change, including $1.76 million for climate change technologies and more than $270 million for international assistance.

Dobriansky focused on U.S. efforts to involve the private sector and the international community in the sequestration of carbon dioxide (CO2) to keep the gas out of the atmosphere where it traps the Sun's heat close to the Earth. She also focused on converting to the use of hydrogen for power to replace fossil fuels that emit CO2 when burned.

The environmental organization Friends of the Earth International said today in Milan that U.S. attempts to divert attention from the Kyoto Protocol have failed.

"The Kyoto Protocol is the only international treaty to cut the emissions causing dangerous climate change. U.S. attempts to derail it have failed. The stage is now set for the Russians to ratify Kyoto and bring it into force," said Roger Higman of Friends of the Earth International.

The UNFCCC Secretariat said in its closing statement that the formal decisions adopted by the conference will "strengthen the institutional framework of both the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol."

Dr. Rajendra Pachauri of India chairs the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The protocol’s flexible mechanisms - the Clean Development Mechanism, joint implementation and emissions trading - are expected to promote technology investment and diffusion. Industrialized countries governed by the protocol can use these mechanisms to meet their emissions limits by cooperating with other countries.

After two years of negotations, agreement was finalized in Milan on the Clean Development Mechanism rules to cover the planting of forests as carbon sinks because they absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The inclusion of genetically modified trees and monoculture plantations in the final rules for carbon sinks is a mistake that will permit projects of "poor environmental standing," says an alliance of several hundred nongovernmental environmental groups, the Climate Action Network.

“Trying to solve the climate change problem by using inherently risky GMOs [genetically modified organisms] is like trying to put out fire with gasoline,” the Climate Action Network said in a statement today.

From another perspective, indigenous people voiced their concern over implementation of the Kyoto Protocol, within the context of the International Decade of Indigenous Peoples, which ends in 2004. They demand that the free prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples must be a condition for all afforestation and reforestation projects of the Clean Development Mechanism.

Marcial Arias Garcia of the Kuna Nation, Panama spoke on behalf of the Indigenous Peoples Caucus.

Some environmental organizations, such as Greenpeace, have described progress on the Kyoto Protocol as slow and the protocol as imperfect, but they acknowledge that it is the only agreement that might protect the world from the global problem of climate change.

Greenpeace International Political Director Steve Sawyer says the Kyoto agreement has been weakened by the United States, Australia and the Oil Producing Countries (OPEC).

“Mr. Putin and Mr. Bush are only looking out to their selfish interests, at the expense of the rest of the world. But the Kyoto Protocol is bigger than Russia and the USA. It’s about protecting the climate of the whole world,” said Sawyer.

The OPEC countries say they are still not satisfied that their “legitimate concerns” about the adverse impact of response measures on the hydrocarbon dependent economies, have been addressed.

OPEC Secretary-General Dr. Alvaro Silva-Calderon (Photo courtesy United Nations)

“We are unhappy about calls for new commitments to be made by developing countries, which would affect their ability to achieve sustained economic growth and eradicate poverty,” Silva-Calderon said.

Cooperation between developed and developing nations was central to many of the discussions in Milan. Technology transfer and capacity building are addressed in many of the decisions taken, and there is "a clear understanding of the importance of advancing this work in partnership with the private sector," the UNFCCC Secretariat said.

Funding to help least developed countries that are most vulnerable to climate change cope with the problems it brings will be arranged through two funds, , the Special Climate Change Fund and the Least Developed Countries Fund. The European Union, Canada, Iceland, New Zealand, Norway and Switzerland renewed an earlier pledge to contribute US$410 million annually to developing countries through these funds and other avenues.

On another front, the international carbon dioxide emissions market is now a reality. The European Union Commission Trading Directive entered into force in October, and emissions trading starts in 2005. It will cover five major EU industries - power generation, oil refineries, steel, building materials, pulp and paper.

{Journalist Singy Hanyona of Zambia contributed to this report.}