Archive for the ‘Environment’ Category
China is calling Canada’s decision to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol “regrettable” and says it goes against the efforts of the international community. Canada’s move comes days after climate-change negotiators met to hammer-out a global deal in Durban, South Africa.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin expressed China’s dismay at the news that Canada had pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol.
He says the timing is particularly bad, because negotiators at the just-concluded Durban conference made what he described as important progress on the issue of the Kyoto Protocol’s second commitment period.
Liu says Canada’s move goes against the efforts of the international community and is regrettable. He says Beijing hopes Canada will face up to its obligations, honor its commitments and actively participate in international efforts to fight climate change.
Canada Monday announced that it is pulling out of the Kyoto Protocol, a treaty hammered out in 1997 that calls for major industrialized nations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
The United States never ratified the Kyoto Protocol. The accord recognizes China as a developing country and so does not impose mandated emissions reduction targets on Beijing.
China and the United States are the world’s two biggest emitters of carbon gases that many scientists say exacerbate global warming.
Liu indicated that Ottawa’s decision will not affect Beijing’s actions.
He says China has been actively participating in the international effort against climate change and made what he describes as “utmost efforts” for the Durban meeting’s success. He says this will continue in the future.
The Chinese negotiator at Durban, Xie Zhenhua, says he is concerned that developed nations are reluctant to reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions, which many scientists say exacerbate global warming. He also called on developed countries to provide financial and technical aid to help developing nations fight against and cope with the effects of climate change.
Delegates from nearly 200 countries continue to work Saturday at a climate conference in South Africa, trying to reach an agreement on how to fight global warming.
Representatives worked long into the night, well past Friday’s scheduled end to the two-week U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Durban.
Negotiators are concerned they will not have enough time to format all concerns into a European Union proposal to create a binding pact to fight global warming. Observers say the world’s biggest polluters, including the U.S., China, and India have not yet agreed on the proposal.
The Europeans won critical support Thursday from an alliance of the world’s poorest countries and small island nations. The EU has indicated that the world’s biggest polluters have been slowing down the pace of the negotiations.
The EU plan sets a 2015 target date for an agreement that would bind all nations to legal commitments to tackle greenhouse gases. The EU has said it will not renew its emissions reductions pledges under the Kyoto Protocol unless all countries are committed to controlling their emissions.
The United States has previously said it will only pledge binding cuts if all major polluters make comparable commitments. China and India have said their level of cuts should be less than those of developed nations. None of those three countries is bound by the Kyoto Protocol.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
The European Union says it is optimistic negotiators at the U.N. climate conference in South Africa will reach agreement on plans for future emissions cuts. Delegates expect to continue working on the details up until the final hours.
On the second-to-last day of the COP17 climate conference in Durban, delegates are focused on finalizing the details of a so-called EU ‘road map’.
The plan would guide future negotiations on a global framework for cutting carbon emissions – something like the Kyoto Protocol which was implemented in 2007 and expires next year.
EU climate spokesman Isaac Valero told VOA there is growing support for the EU road map, but that some items need to be sorted out.
“Now, of course we have to look at all the different details, when the negotiations should be concluded,” said Valero. “You know that the EU’s position is very clear on this: we want the negotiations to be concluded by 2015 at the latest, we don’t understand for the delays, and we want this new legally binding framework to apply to all major economies no later than 2020.”
Valero said he is optimistic that a deal will be reached by Friday.
The United States has also announced its support for the EU road map process.
“If we get the kind of roadmap that countries have called for, that the EU has called for, that the U.S. supports, for preparing for and negotiating a future regime, whether it ends up being legally binding or not we don’t know yet, but we are strongly committed to a promptly starting process to moving forward.” said Todd Stern, the head of the U.S. delegation.
Environmental groups represented at COP17 have accused the United States of holding up progress on a binding deal.
Annie Petsonk of the Environmental Defense Fund said if the United States will not take action, it should get out of the way.
“The reluctance of the United States at this time to launch negotiations on a legally-binding protocol should not block the rest of the parties who are here who want to move ahead,” said Petsonk.
An American student from a U.S. youth group interrupted Stern’s speech to delegates Thursday. Abigail Borah shouted that 2020 is too late for a legally binding treaty. She was referring to the U.S. stated position that it does not expect to enter any new agreement on emissions cuts until after that year.
Stern deflected the criticism at a later press conference, saying it is “completely off-base” to suggest the U.S. is proposing to delay action until 2020.
He said the U.S. is committed to emissions targets reached at the previous climate conference in Cancun, Mexico.
“It’s not a time-out. I mean, it’s not remotely a time-out,” said Stern. “We reached an important agreement last year. We reached an agreement which, although it is not legally binding, it is a COP decision under a legally binding treaty which is very serious and which covers more than 80 percent of global emissions as compared to a Kyoto agreement which people are hoping will cover something in the order of 15 percent this year.”
The second-biggest issue yet to be resolved in Durban are the details of a Green Climate Fund. The project, hatched in Cancun, would finance climate-sustainable projects as part of a $100 billion plan to help developing nations.
The conference is scheduled to come to a close on Friday, though many people here expect negotiations to stretch late into the night.