http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0610-07.htm
Published on Tuesday,
June 10, 2003 by OneWorld.net
Going Backwards
Rich Countries' Greenhouse Gas Emissions Ballooning
BONN, Germany - The emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse
gases from Europe, Japan, the United States and other industrialized
countries could grow by 17 percent from 2000 to 2010, despite
measures
in place to curb them, according to a new United Nations report.
Greenhouse gases blanket
the Earth, trapping the Sun's heat close
to the planet's surface.
Based on projections
provided by governments, the UN report will be
discussed at a two-week meeting of the UN Climate Change Convention's
190 members beginning Wednesday in Bonn. It is intended to help
governments plan their future climate change strategies.
"These findings
clearly demonstrate that stronger and more creative
policies will be needed for accelerating the spread of climate-
friendly technologies and persuading businesses, local governments
and citizens to cut their greenhouse gas emissions," said
Joke
Waller Hunter, executive secretary of the UN Climate Change Convention.
Emissions rose in all
major economic sectors, including energy,
transport, industry and agriculture. The exception was waste
management, where emissions declined slightly. The figures
do not include emissions and removals from land use change
and forestry.
Governments adopted
a more comprehensive set of policies and
measures during 2000 and 2001 for addressing their emissions,
such as emissions trading, carbon taxes and green certificate
trading. The greatest number of policies and measures are being
put to use in the energy sector.
The value of this report,
an official UN document entitled
'Compilation and Synthesis of Third National Communications'
has been improved by the growing quantity, quality and timeliness
of the underlying national reports, called 'national communications,'
the Climate Change Convention Secretariat says.
Thirty-one third national
communications from developed countries
have been submitted, along with 100 initial reports from developing
countries.
The emissions of Central
and Eastern European countries are starting
to increase as their economies recover from early and mid-1990s
lows, says the report, based on projections provided by these
governments.
Developed countries
saw their combined emissions fall during
the 1990s, by three percent, due to a 37 percent decline in the
emissions of Central and Eastern European countries.
But most of the reductions
in developed countries was due to the
steep economic decline in the countries of eastern Europe and
the former USSR, resulting from the transition from centrally
planned to market economies, the secretariat says. In recent
years most of these countries have experienced appreciable economic
growth, which is projected to lead to increased emissions in
the future.
Greenhouse gas emissions
in the highly industrialized countries
as a whole rose by eight percent from 1990 to 2000. According
to the report, the European Union's total emissions decreased
by 3.5 percent from 1990 to 2000, with individual member states
varying between a decrease of 19 percent and an increase of
35 percent.
Emissions increased
in most other highly industrialized
countries--five percent in New Zealand, 11 percent in Japan,
14 percent in the United States, 18 percent in Australia, and
20 percent in Canada.
With very few exceptions,
the secretariat says, the reporting
governments underlined the importance of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol
in shaping their domestic climate policy responses. They said
their emissions-reduction targets under the protocol are a first
step towards long-term and continued emission reductions.
This international
treaty under the UN Climate Change Convention
requires 37 industrialized countries to reduce their emission
of
six greenhouse gases an average of 5.2 percent of 1990 emissions
during the five year period 2008-2012.
The protocol broke
new ground with three innovative mechanisms
--joint implementation, the clean development mechanism (CDM)
and emissions trading. These aim to maximize the cost-effectiveness
of climate change mitigation by allowing parties to the protocol
to pursue opportunities to cut emissions or enhance carbon sinks
more cheaply abroad than at home.
The cost of curbing
emissions varies considerably from region
to region as a result of such differences as energy sources,
energy efficiency and waste management. The parties may maximize
the effectiveness of their funding for climate change mitigation
by cutting emissions, or increasing removals, where it is cheapest
to do so, given that the impact on the atmosphere is the same.
The Executive Board
of the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development
Mechanism (CDM) met over the weekend, and for the first time
considered methodologies needed for evaluating and monitoring
CDM projects. If such methodologies are approved, the first
CDM projects could be registered during the third quarter of
2003.
At a side event on
poverty and climate change Waller-Hunter
introduced a report entitled, 'Poverty and climate change:
Reducing the vulnerability of the poor through adaptation.'
World Bank representative
Kristalina Georgieva said the report
offers adaptation measures that will assist developing countries
to deal with the impacts of climate change and reduce their
vulnerability.
Although the United
States will not ratify the Kyoto Protocol
under President Bush, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman
Friday announced that for the first time, the U.S. Department
of Agriculture will give consideration to management practices
that store carbon dioxide and reduce greenhouse gases in implementing
forest and agriculture conservation programs.
"Farmers, ranchers
and forestland owners can play a unique role
in reducing the greenhouse gas intensity of the U.S. economy,"
Veneman said.
Generally, the UN report
concludes, climate change has increased
in importance in the national policy agendas of countries that
are Parties to the Convention. Linkages were established in a
number of national communications between climate change issues,
such as energy and mobility, and sustainable development.
Copyright 2003 Environment
News Service
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