yuuteya
12-21-2005, 05:56 AM
[What are the chances the US will join to Kyoto Treaty? As long as Bush is President the chance is low? What do you think?]
EDITORIAL/Kyoto Protocol
12/15/2005
The United Nations climate conference in Montreal that wound up last weekend achieved significant progress in the international effort to curb global warming. For the first time, parties to the Kyoto Protocol gathered together.
The focus of negotiations was to set new targets. The 1997 Kyoto agreement set targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions only for its first commitment period of 2008-2012. Only industrial countries are bound by them.
The challenge for the negotiators was how to secure the involvement of the United States, which withdrew from the protocol, and the developing countries refusing to accept binding targets, also for the second phase. Negotiators were worried that industrial countries that ratified Kyoto would not agree to talks on new targets unless the United States and developing countries joined the process.
Canada, which chaired the conference, fiercely lobbied the leading players to make concessions. For its part, Canada was in the grips of domestic political turmoil that led to the dissolution of the House of Commons.
In the end, delegates agreed to set up a special committee for new climate talks that will include the United States and developing countries. Industrial countries, meantime, promised to work out post-Kyoto targets. The agreement was reached only after the text was watered down to accommodate the positions of the United States and developing nations. The final text says the special committee will only engage in dialogue and "will not open any negotiations leading to new commitments."
The establishment of a new forum for talks on what should come after Kyoto's terms expire in 2012 nevertheless represents a step forward--whatever the formula.
One of the driving forces behind this progress was the global voice of citizens represented by thousands of members of nongovernmental organizations who turned up for the conference.
The alarming effects of harmful climate changes are increasingly becoming clear; for example, rising global temperatures and violent hurricanes like Katrina. People around the world are loath to see the Kyoto treaty, a product of tough negotiations, collapse.
Another important factor in the achievement reached in Montreal was what the treaty set out to strive for.
Projects based on the so-called clean development mechanism promoted by the Kyoto Protocol are already being realized. The idea is for closer cooperation between industrial and developing countries in anti-warming efforts.
Developing nations that take part can receive technology transfers from their industrial partners, which obtain greenhouse emission credits in return. The treaty has also led to markets for trading such credits. The protocol is already rooted in producing meaningful changes.
Since industrial countries have pledged to thrash out new commitments for the period starting in 2013, various undertakings for cutting greenhouse gases will attract growing attention as potentially profitable businesses.
The role Japan played in the conference should be mentioned here. The Japanese delegate strongly urged developing countries to consent to future participation in the next phase. The official also asked Washington to get more involved in the international quest to stop the planet's temperature from rising dangerously. Tokyo's diplomatic campaign should be praised.
With the European Union's efforts increasingly burdened by its expanded membership, expectations are growing that Japan will provide more leadership in environmental diplomacy, especially for the promotion of the protocol.
In future talks on global warming, Japan should focus on exploring ways to persuade the United States to rejoin the Kyoto treaty. It should do more to develop energy-saving and environmental technologies while promoting ideas like emissions trading in line with the treaty. That could help convince Washington of the economic benefits of returning to Kyoto.
It is also important for Japan to start talks with China and India over future regulations on greenhouse emissions.
Both would be tough challenges. As the country where the Kyoto Protocol was born, though, Japan cannot give up this mission.
--The Asahi Shimbun, Dec. 14(IHT/Asahi: December 15,2005)
EDITORIAL/Kyoto Protocol
12/15/2005
The United Nations climate conference in Montreal that wound up last weekend achieved significant progress in the international effort to curb global warming. For the first time, parties to the Kyoto Protocol gathered together.
The focus of negotiations was to set new targets. The 1997 Kyoto agreement set targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions only for its first commitment period of 2008-2012. Only industrial countries are bound by them.
The challenge for the negotiators was how to secure the involvement of the United States, which withdrew from the protocol, and the developing countries refusing to accept binding targets, also for the second phase. Negotiators were worried that industrial countries that ratified Kyoto would not agree to talks on new targets unless the United States and developing countries joined the process.
Canada, which chaired the conference, fiercely lobbied the leading players to make concessions. For its part, Canada was in the grips of domestic political turmoil that led to the dissolution of the House of Commons.
In the end, delegates agreed to set up a special committee for new climate talks that will include the United States and developing countries. Industrial countries, meantime, promised to work out post-Kyoto targets. The agreement was reached only after the text was watered down to accommodate the positions of the United States and developing nations. The final text says the special committee will only engage in dialogue and "will not open any negotiations leading to new commitments."
The establishment of a new forum for talks on what should come after Kyoto's terms expire in 2012 nevertheless represents a step forward--whatever the formula.
One of the driving forces behind this progress was the global voice of citizens represented by thousands of members of nongovernmental organizations who turned up for the conference.
The alarming effects of harmful climate changes are increasingly becoming clear; for example, rising global temperatures and violent hurricanes like Katrina. People around the world are loath to see the Kyoto treaty, a product of tough negotiations, collapse.
Another important factor in the achievement reached in Montreal was what the treaty set out to strive for.
Projects based on the so-called clean development mechanism promoted by the Kyoto Protocol are already being realized. The idea is for closer cooperation between industrial and developing countries in anti-warming efforts.
Developing nations that take part can receive technology transfers from their industrial partners, which obtain greenhouse emission credits in return. The treaty has also led to markets for trading such credits. The protocol is already rooted in producing meaningful changes.
Since industrial countries have pledged to thrash out new commitments for the period starting in 2013, various undertakings for cutting greenhouse gases will attract growing attention as potentially profitable businesses.
The role Japan played in the conference should be mentioned here. The Japanese delegate strongly urged developing countries to consent to future participation in the next phase. The official also asked Washington to get more involved in the international quest to stop the planet's temperature from rising dangerously. Tokyo's diplomatic campaign should be praised.
With the European Union's efforts increasingly burdened by its expanded membership, expectations are growing that Japan will provide more leadership in environmental diplomacy, especially for the promotion of the protocol.
In future talks on global warming, Japan should focus on exploring ways to persuade the United States to rejoin the Kyoto treaty. It should do more to develop energy-saving and environmental technologies while promoting ideas like emissions trading in line with the treaty. That could help convince Washington of the economic benefits of returning to Kyoto.
It is also important for Japan to start talks with China and India over future regulations on greenhouse emissions.
Both would be tough challenges. As the country where the Kyoto Protocol was born, though, Japan cannot give up this mission.
--The Asahi Shimbun, Dec. 14(IHT/Asahi: December 15,2005)