Australia aims to set standard

Slides
Photos

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-22 09:05

CANBERRA: Just weeks before a UN deadline to try to agree on a tougher global deal to fight climate change, nations can't agree on the design or legal nature of a new pact.

Australia has crafted a framework it says can bring together emissions reduction steps by rich and poor nations to slow the pace of climate change and the idea has gained some acceptance. But mistrust by developing nations remains.

The United Nations says the existing Kyoto Protocol needs to be expanded or replaced from 2013 to try to draw in the United States, which never ratified the Kyoto Protocol, and big developing countries, which are now among the world's top greenhouse gas emitters. Kyoto commits 37 industrialized countries, except the US, to economy-wide emissions targets between 2008-12, while developing nations are supposed to implement voluntary steps according to their abilities.

The European Union says the pact has been a failure, global greenhouse gas emissions have soared over the past decade and that few of the rich nations bound by Kyoto cuts will meet their targets by 2012.

A possible solution?

Australia, Japan, Europe and the United States say it's time for a new agreement, though differ on a mechanism to ensure nations stick to their emission reduction programs from 2013.

Australia proposes a scheme that would bind all major emitting nations. Under the plan, nations would agree on their own schedule of actions or commitments. For rich countries, this would mean economy-wide targets to cut emissions, as well as national emissions trading and perhaps renewable energy targets.

For developing countries, they could instead choose other steps, such as setting energy intensity targets for industries, energy efficiency programs, or a target to curb deforestation.

But while these steps for developing countries were flexible, they would have to be legally binding and become part of a broader post-2012 climate pact.

Such undertakings would clarify what each nation was prepared to do, help rich countries settle on binding emissions targets post-2012 and guide finance and technology to developing nations to achieve their emissions-cut goals.

Lingering mistrust

In theory, the Australian idea sounds fine. But developing countries see it as an effort to break away from Kyoto and treat rich and poor countries the same way in terms of emissions reduction steps.

India and Indonesia in particular say any voluntary steps to curb emissions should not be subjected to independent verification, or auditing, nor should they be legally binding. Only steps wholly or partly funded by rich nations should be open to scrutiny.

The Australian plan also blurs Kyoto's penalty, or compliance, system for rich nations that don't meet their 2008-12 emissions targets. It says reduction commitments, which will be taken mainly by rich nations, would be subject to compliance. Actions, mainly taken by developing countries, would not.

Reuters