CLIMATE CHANGE:
Poor and Vulnerable Countries Demand Compensation
Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, Dec 6 (IPS) - "For our countries, climate change is more
catastrophic than terrorism." This was how the delegate from Tanzania summed
up the stance of the world's 48 least developed countries at the 10th
Conference of Parties of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change
(COP-10), which opened Monday here in the Argentine capital.
The Tanzanian delegation's sentiments were echoed throughout the opening
session of the conference. Almost all of the countries whose representatives
took the floor expressed their satisfaction over the imminent entry into
force of the Kyoto Protocol, the first international instrument aimed at
reducing so-called greenhouse gas emissions, which lead to global warming.
During the opening session of COP-10, which has brought together 5,400
delegates from 189 countries, the Argentine minister of health, Ginés
González García, was designated the conference chair.
Joke Waller-Hunter of the Netherlands, the executive secretary of the U.N.
Climate Change Convention, noted that this year is also the 10th anniversary
of the convention's entry into force, and presented the report published to
mark the occasion, "The First Ten Years", an overview of the advances made
so far and the challenges that still lie ahead.
Waller-Hunter reported that between 1990 and 2000, there was a 6.6 percent
global reduction in man-made emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and
nitrous oxide, three of the so-called greenhouse gases, which trap heat in
the atmosphere, raising the earth's temperature.
This global warming is considered by most scientists to cause long-term
climate changes that are already underway and could have potentially
disastrous consequences.
Waller-Hunter warned, however, that the global reduction in emissions hides
actual setbacks.
This reduction came about because the so-called transition economy countries
suffered a severe decline in production during the time period in question,
as a result of switching from socialist to market economies.
On the other hand, if one were to look specifically at the industrialised
countries - which are responsible for the massive contamination of the
atmosphere with carbon dioxide emissions since the beginning of the
industrial revolution, 200 years ago - there was actually an average
seven-percent increase in emissions between 1990 and 2000.
The entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol, scheduled for Feb. 16, will be a
"first step" towards the goal of long-term mitigation, said Waller-Hunter.
Through the Kyoto Protocol, 30 industrialised developed nations have pledged
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2012 to levels 5.2 percent
lower than in 1990.
Australia and the United States - two of the world's largest producers of
greenhouse gas emissions - have not ratified the treaty.
At the same time, however, the delegates to this conference will also be
working towards concrete measures aimed at adaptation to climate change.
Mitigation and adaptation have been the two main focuses of negotiations
over the last ten years. However, most efforts during that time have
concentrated on mitigation, largely due to the resistance of the
industrialised countries to finance the prevention of detrimental effects of
climate change in the poorest nations.
But the balance has begun to shift over the last three years, and many of
the delegates at this conference trust that adaptation will be a central
theme of discussions, particularly in view of Russia's recent ratification
of the Kyoto Protocol.
Given that the current accumulation of greenhouse gases is primarily due to
the industrialisation of a handful of nations, particularly the United
States and Europe, the Climate Change Convention clearly establishes the
responsibilities of different members of the international community.
According to Waller-Hunter, the developing countries must identify their
main vulnerabilities, while the industrialised countries will have to
provide "concrete support".
There are 100 million dollars available for adaptation programmes, which are
being transferred to a number of countries.
The Swiss delegate, speaking in the name of the European Union, reaffirmed
the bloc's support for a fund for adaptation initiatives created in COP-7,
held in Marrakesh, Morocco in 2001.
"We will live up to the commitments we assumed in Morocco," he said.
But there has been a flood of demands from the different blocs into which
the developing countries are grouped in the United Nations.
The Group of 77 (G-77) developing countries plus China, the bloc of the
least developed countries, and the small island states - which could
disappear as the sea level rises due to global warming - called for the
international community to live up to the pledged transfer of financial and
technological resources to mitigate the impact of climate change.
In the name of the G-77, the delegate from Qatar said that with the entry
into effect of the Kyoto Protocol, a new era of international cooperation is
beginning. But he called for more effective action to address the needs of
many countries that already have heavily damaged "socioeconomic
infrastructure."
UNFCCC Annex 1 countries - the industrialised nations that share the
commitment to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions by 2015 - must live up
to their responsibilities and assume their commitments with regards to
funding for adaptation, said the Qatari delegate.
The representative of Tanzania said in the name of the least developed
countries that for the poorest of the poor, climate change is nothing short
of catastrophic, and added that there were not even enough funds to carry
out assessments of critical areas where defences must be built up against
damages that have already begun to occur.
The delegation from Tuvalu, a nation of coral atolls in the western Pacific
Ocean that sit no more than five metres above sea level, spoke in the name
of the small island states, saying the group is disappointed with countries
like Australia and the United States that are parties to the UNFCCC but have
refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol that would obligate them to cut
emissions.
Tuvalu said it would like this month's gathering to become "the conference
of adaptation" that would give special attention to concrete projects and
the necessary financing to carry them out.
Floods, more frequent and more intense tropical storms, drought in temperate
zones, the expansion of tropical diseases and the rising sea level are just
some of the impacts of climate change that will have to be confronted with
early warning systems, dikes, floodwalls and barriers, alternative crops and
other projects.
Kenya lamented that it took so many meetings to draw special attention to an
issue of such crucial importance to poor countries.
In Africa, there are no success stories involving technology transfer, and
the rules of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), administered by the
World Bank, should be revised, because they require co-financing in order
for projects to be approved - a hurdle for many poor countries, the Kenyan
delegation complained.
The United States, which withdrew its signature from the Kyoto Protocol,
said it had taken a different route towards curbing pollution. But the
government of President George W. Bush is fomenting investment in the
development of technology that will lead to the same objective, said the
U.S. delegate.
COP-10 runs through Dec. 17 in the "La Rural" exhibition centre in Buenos
Aires, which has been surrounded by a heavy police guard. Environment
ministers and the heads of the national delegations will meet Dec. 15-17.
(END/2004)
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