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Nations divided at climate conference
2007-12-05
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd urged the United States to follow his country's lead and ratify the Kyoto Protocol, while rich and poor nations appeared divided Wednesday over what a future climate change pact should look like. Rudd signed documents this week to formally adopt the accord that caps greenhouse gas emissions, reversing a decade of Australian resistance and leaving the United States as the only industrialized country to refuse to sign on. "Our position vis-a-vis Kyoto is clear cut, and that is that all developed and developing countries need to be part of the global solution," the newly elected prime minister told the Southern Cross Broadcasting radio network in Australia. "And therefore we do need to see the United States as a full ratification state," he said. His comments put further pressure on the United States at the U.N. Climate Change conference in Bali, where nearly 190 nations hope to launch a two-year negotiating process that will result in a pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. Failure to continue reducing emissions, experts warn, will almost certainly lead to catastrophic droughts and floods, and deaths linked to heat waves and disease. The 175-nation Kyoto agreement of 1997 requires 36 industrialized nations to reduce their emissions of heat-trapping "greenhouse gases" -- carbon dioxide and some other industrial, agricultural and transportation byproducts -- by an average 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. The United States says it wants to be part of the negotiations on a follow-up accord, but refuses to endorse mandatory cuts in emissions favored by the European Union, choosing instead to focus on funding renewable energy projects and improving energy efficiency. While the conference is in its early days, differences already were emerging, mostly over what should go into the "Bali roadmap," which will lay out the subjects for discussions in the years to come. Japan, for example, offered up a proposal that doesn't include targets, while the EU has come out with a detailed wish list that includes demands for industrialized countries to take the lead in approving mandatory cuts, strengthening the carbon market and boosting funding to help poor countries adapt. Meanwhile, delegates and activists say poor countries led by the Group of 77, which represents 132 mainly developing countries and China, have demanded that rich countries speed up the process of providing them with technologies that would help reduce pollution or improve energy efficiency. They also want funds to adapt to the impact of global warming. Meena Raman, chairman of Friends of the Earth International, said marathon debates over the issue, some running late into the night, indicated that the West wasn't taking their concerns seriously. "How on earth can you talk about targets if you don't want to engage on the scope, the depth and need of technology?" she asked reporters. "In the last two days, the sincerity and urgency that is needed and goodwill from the (West) is not happening." Few had criticism for Australia, however. Rudd's Labor Party swept to power last month, ending more than 11 years of conservative rule under former Prime Minister John Howard, a staunch ally of President Bush. Rudd has said he wants Australia to become a broker through "creative middle-power diplomacy." Though small by population, it is wealthy, developed, and has influence among its allies like the United States and Britain, as well as trade partners such as China. "We've had a bad record on climate change," said Rudd, who is due to arrive in Bali next week. "It's time to put that behind us. I believe that we now need to do whatever we can to bridge the gap between the developed and developing worlds, because right now the gap is huge." In addition to the United States, he said, China and India, which refuse to sign any deal that would slow their own pace of development, must be prepared to make commitments in the fight.
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