sounding the climate alarm
Sirens set off by Greenpeace activists outside the United Nations climate conference sounded the alarm - it is time for ministers to start talking. Activists outside the conference unfurled a banner which read "Australia, Canada, USA - Climate Criminals" while inside Australia and Canada were doing their best to either stall or vandalise the Kyoto Protocol and frustrate attempts to combat climate change.
"It's desperation time for the world's climate and this conference," said Steve Sawyer, Greenpeace climate campaigner.
"If the delegates here can't agree on a strong climate treaty to cut greenhouse gases, we will face catastrophic changes in world weather patterns."
"Small changes in the text of the treaty can allow countries to increase their emissions by tens or hundreds of millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide and could result in millions of deaths," said Sawyer.
There is no escaping the fact that the situation is grim. Thanks to President Bush, countries like Japan, Canada and Australia are exploiting their new found importance to leverage ever wider loopholes and carbon accounting practices that are more rubbery than ever. For the treaty to enter into force a majority of countries representing a majority of the emissions reductions must ratify. Without Japan, that target will likely not be met.
The Kyoto Protocol commits the 39 industrialised nations to cutting greenhouse gas emissions to an average of 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by the period 2008-2012. The major greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide, which is emitted mainly by burning fossil fuels. The Kyoto Protocol will not take effect until it is ratified by 55 percent of the nations representing at least 55 percent of the greenhouse gas reduction commitment. Political leaders from 180 countries arrived Monday this week for two weeks of negotiations on how to implement the Kyoto Protocol.
