Failure of COP6 over forest absorption issue likely
Copyright 2000 Kyodo News Service, Japan Economic Newswire
November 25, 2000
THE HAGUE, Nov. 25 Kyodo - A U.N. conference on climate change will likely wrap up two weeks of discussions Saturday afternoon without reaching any comprehensive agreement, with the conference remaining split over the role of forest absorption in meeting greenhouse gas emissions targets.
German Environment Minister Jurgen Trittin said negotiations at the sixth Conference of Parties (COP6) to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change has collapsed because Japan and the United States could not reach an agreement with the European Union (EU) over forest absorption and other issues.
The failure of the COP6 negotiations, aimed at adopting detailed rules for implementing the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to curb global warming, is expected to be a major blow to the goal of stopping adverse climate change.
The United Nations aims to ratify the protocol in 2002. However, the prospects for achieving the target are dim with the COP6 rupture.
In addition, differences among industrialized countries, as well as between developed and developing countries, are not likely to vanish soon.
Japanese Environment Agency chief Yoriko Kawaguchi, co-chairwoman of one of the conference's four sessions, told a news conference that she greatly 'regrets' the situation.
In the part of the conference, beginning last Sunday that involved government ministers, Dutch Environment Minister Jan Pronk, who serves as the conference chairman, presented a compromise over such issues as forest absorption and financial aid to developing countries.
However, developed countries were dismayed that Pronk's proposal would significantly reduce the amount of forest-based carbon-dioxide (CO2) absorption they can count on to fulfill their commitments made under the Kyoto Protocol.
The protocol requires Japan to cut by 6% from 1990 levels its annual average CO2 emissions between 2008 and 2012. The target figures are 7% for the U.S. and 8% for the EU.
Under the formula proposed by Pronk, Japan would be able to reduce its Kyoto target by only 0.56% through forest absorption, while developed countries can count on up to 3%.
Kawaguchi had said Pronk's proposal is 'unbalanced' and 'favors European and developing countries at the expense of Japan, the U.S. and other developed countries.'
The EU strongly opposes the wider use of forest absorption.
She argued that Japan accepted the 6% greenhouse gas reduction target on the assumption that its forest absorption efforts would be accepted in the formula.