The Green Page - December
6, 2000
Publication: Daily Nation
Paper
Page:15A
Paper Date: Wed, Dec 6, 2000
Byline:
Compiled by Terry Ally
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Page sponsored by
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DESPITE
THE collapse of the climate change talks in The Hague, a local expert says
it was not a "disaster".
"I speak personally here now. I do not share that view," said
Dr. Leonard Nurse, who was one of Barbados' representatives at the talks.
"I've seen it in the Press around the world but I do not think it is
an accurate assessment; many of us believe that a poor agreement is worse
than no agreement at all, so we are not discouraged because there's not an
agreement.
In fact, in a strange way, I think our interests are being reasonably
served because it was those interests that were brought to the fore in The
Hague that led to many of the sticking points and partly led to the
impasse," he said at a press conference in Barbados hosted by the
Barbados-based Caribbean Planning for Adaptation to Global Climate
Change (CPACC).
One of the key Caribbean issues is to get additional funds injected into
the Global Environment Facility which is the conference method of funding
climate change projects in developing countries.
However, the present set
of funds was earmarked for Stage 1 projects which are studies on
vulnerability assessments only.
The Caribbean is moving towards Stages 2 and 3 by the end of next year
which are the stages to implement projects to cope with climate change but
no funds are yet available.
The developed countries agreed, at the 1997 Kyoto meeting, to provide
these funds to Global Environment Facility but have been delaying it.
"That is legally binding commitment under the Kyoto Protocol to which
they have all signed and that is one thing that we brought them back to
(in The Hague) as it was being postponed conference after conference, year
after year," said Nurse.
Another sticking point was that they wanted the industrialised countries
to achieve real domestic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions which cause
global warming.
The United States and its lobby (Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and
Japan) want to use market measures to achieve the reduction, but Nurse
said this paper shuffling was unacceptable to developing countries.
"We seek the assurance that Annex One parties that have binding
obligations really achieve meaningful domestic reductions in their
greenhouse gas emissions and do not try to meet their obligations
under the Kyoto Protocol by accounting sleight of hand and paper
transactions and also by relying on carbon sequestration by natural sinks
... in other words, the planting of trees, the maintenance of forests, and
so on. That is really where the sore points are right now and to that
extent our concerns are very much on the table and in fact, before any
final agreements are reached, those concerns have to be addressed one way
or the other. So I'm very hopeful because we've reached the point where we
actually have them on the table and it is going to become very
embarrassing for certain parties if they do not meet those kinds of
obligations," he said.
Hawaiian coral
protection
United States President Bill Clinton has established the largest protected
area in the United States, an 84-million-acre ecosystem reserve around the
northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Clinton issued an executive order creating
the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve, which
contains nearly 70 per cent of the United States' coral reefs, as well as
pristine remote islands, atolls, and submerged lagoons. The president said
his actions were designed to preserve the islands' natural beauty
"for a long time. I hope, forever".
Oil tanker owner charged
A Scottish shipping company has been charged with polluting Canadian
waters after one of its boats allegedly spilled 395 gallons of oil off
Cape Breton Island. Ocean Bulk Group of Glasgow, Scotland, owner of the MT
Endurance tanker, was ordered to appear in a Halifax courtroom on January
2 on one count of polluting Canadian waters, a Transport Canada spokesman
said. A military patrol plane first reported an oil slick several
kilometres long in October.
Salvage talks
Top government officials from the United States and the European Union are
meeting in Canada today to try to salvage a deal on curbing global
warming. The two-day meeting will be the first between the two sides since
United Nations-sponsored talks to set a global strategy on cutting
"greenhouse gas" emissions collapsed spectacularly last month.
If the Ottawa session brings the two sides closer, it could pave the way
for a ministerial-level meeting that could take place in Oslo early next
week, the European Union official said.