• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

U.S. in 'Beyond Kyoto' pact with Asian nations

Posted on: Thursday, 28 July 2005, 06:32 CDT

By Darren Schuettler

VIENTIANE (Reuters) - Six nations led by the United States and Australia unveiled a pact on Thursday to fight global warming, but critics assailed the voluntary deal for offering no emissions targets and said it undermined existing treaties.

The Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate -- grouping major polluters United States and China with India, Japan, South Korea and Australia -- seeks new technology to cut greenhouse gases without sacrificing economic development.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick insisted it was not a threat to the Kyoto Protocol that Washington and Canberra have refused to ratify because they say it omits developing nations and may threaten jobs at home.

"We are not detracting from Kyoto in any way at all. We are complementing it," Zoellick told reporters on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific security forum in the Lao capital, Vientiane.

"Our goal is to complement other treaties with practical solutions to problems," he said.

The six, which account for nearly half the world's greenhouse emissions, said the pact would "seek to address energy, climate change and air pollution issues within a paradigm of economic development."

Australian Prime Minister John Howard called it a "historic agreement" that was "superior to the Kyoto Protocol."

But environmentalists said the deal was a limited trade and technology accord and no challenger to the U.N. treaty, which came into force in February.

"It doesn't have anything to do with reducing emissions. There are no targets, no cuts, no monitoring of emissions, nothing binding," said Steve Sawyer of Greenpeace.

"It doesn't address the wider question that two of the richest countries in the world are doing nothing to reduce emissions."

The United States and Australia are the only developed nations outside Kyoto, which demands cuts in greenhouse emissions to 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12.

China and India have ratified Kyoto, but as developing nations they do not have to meet its obligations in the protocol's first phase that ends in 2012. Both fear environmental curbs would restrict their surging economies.

China's ambassador to Laos, Liu Yongxing, called the new pact a "win-win solution" for developing and developed nations.

The world is consuming more energy and producing more greenhouse gas emissions, particularly carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels such as coal in power plants and petrol in cars. Other gases, such as methane from agriculture, are also adding to global warming, many scientists say.

"KNOCK KYOTO ON THE HEAD"

Some environmentalists accused Washington of seeking to distract U.N. talks in November in Montreal, which will focus on how to widen Kyoto to include developing nations after 2012.

Sawyer said the pact might be "a benign technology agreement," but "on the other hand, this could be the first foray by the Americans and Australians to knock Kyoto on the head."

Others were also suspicious.

"The main beneficiaries will be Australian coal companies, some of the world's biggest greenhouse polluters. It's a Machiavellian pact," said Clive Hamilton, director of The Australia Institute research center.

Japan, which said the pact would not affect its Kyoto commitments, saw a chance to develop clean energy in the region.

But Canadian Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew, whose government is a strong proponent of Kyoto, said the partnership was thin on details.

"This is progress, but I'm still waiting for the meat. I hope very much that there will be meat," he told reporters.

Ministers from the six nations will attend an inaugural meeting in November in the southern Australian city of Adelaide.

Phil Goff, New Zealand's foreign minister, defended Kyoto but agreed new technology was needed to solve age-old environmental challenges.

"How to deal with the problem of flatulent cows and sheep? That is a tougher problem because the science has to be found to enable us to do that," he told reporters.

Methane from livestock is the biggest source of greenhouse gases in New Zealand, where almost half comes from agriculture. (Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols in CANBERRA, Ben Blanchard in VIENTIANE and Alister Doyle in OSLO)

Source: REUTERS

More News in this Category