23 July 2001

Ministers in Bonn Reach Agreement on Climate Change Treaty

By Jim Fuller
Washington File Science Correspondent

Bonn -- Environment ministers and diplomats from 178 countries have reached agreement on the rules for implementing a legally-binding global treaty that would require industrialized countries to cut emissions of heat-trapping gases linked to global warming.

Agreement came July 23 in Bonn following four days of intense, ministerial-level negotiations on rules for implementing the Kyoto Protocol. The protocol calls on industrialized countries to cut emissions of greenhouse gases that cause global warming -- mainly carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels -- by 5.2 percent from 1990 levels by 2012.

The new agreement covers crucial areas, including financing for developing countries, emission credits for forests that soak up carbon dioxide, and mechanisms for offsetting emission reduction targets.

To enter into force, the treaty must now be ratified by 55 nations responsible for 55 percent of emissions worldwide. Officials expressed the hope that the treaty would be brought into force in 2002, the 10-year anniversary of the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro where more than 150 countries signed the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Kyoto Protocol, which was adopted in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, is an amendment to the framework convention.

President Bush rejected the Kyoto Protocol last March, arguing that its binding cuts in greenhouse gas emissions would harm the U.S. economy. He also questioned its potential effectiveness because it does not require emissions reductions by large developing countries such as China and India. However, a U.S. delegation took part in most of the discussions in Bonn this month to ensure legitimate U.S. interests were protected.

The head of the U.S. delegation, Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky, said that the agreement reached in Bonn did not change the U.S. view that the Kyoto Protocol represents unsound policy and is not workable for the United States.

"Among other things, the emissions targets are not scientifically based or environmentally effective, given the global nature of greenhouse gas emissions and the protocol's exclusion of developing countries from its emissions limitation requirements and its failure to address black soot and tropospheric ozone," Dobriansky said.

Most delegations involved in the marathon negotiations, speaking at the final ministerial plenary on July 23, hailed the agreement reached in Bonn as an historic decision that would enable governments to ratify the protocol and bring it into force.

Representatives of the European Union (EU), who made major concessions to bring about the agreement, expressed the hope that the United States would reconsider its decision not to ratify the protocol.

"To bring the U.S. on board we needed a boat and now we have one," said Olivier Deleuze, Belgian state secretary for energy and head of the EU delegation. "The discussion should be easier now that the U.S. sees that the Kyoto Protocol is going ahead."

Dobriansky said that while the United States does not intend to ratify the protocol progress was made during the negotiations on several important matters related to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The Unites States has pledged continued support for the convention, which entered into force in March 1994 after being ratified by 186 countries, including the United States. The convention commits both developed and developing countries to adopt national programs for mitigating climate change and developing strategies for adapting to its impacts.

"We have identified areas for cooperation among developed and developing countries" under the convention, Dobriansky said. "Action in these areas can increase the capacity of developing countries to respond to climate change, help facilitate exports of advanced clean energy technologies and stimulate other actions that will help mitigate greenhouse gas emissions abroad.

"The United States looks forward to partnering with developing countries through bilateral and regional programs, as well as pre-existing multilateral financial mechanisms," she added.

The Kyoto Protocol calls for emissions reductions of six heat-trapping greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride.

Dobriansky also expressed concern about certain elements of the protocol setting precedents that could be carried over to other international agreements. She said, for example, that the approved plan calls for establishment of a compliance monitoring body that would set legal penalties for industrial states that fail to meet their Kyoto targets, but whose membership is dominated by developing countries without emissions targets.

She also expressed concern about rules that purport to change treaty commitments through decisions of the member parties rather than through a proper amendment procedure.

Finally, Dobriansky said the United States will not be expected to make contributions to special funds set up by the protocol to help developing countries cope with the effects of global warming, such as rising seas and higher temperatures.

"There is a complete segregation of funds called for under the Kyoto Protocol from funds used to implement the framework convention," and the United States will not make contributions "beyond its preexisting commitments as set forth in the framework convention," she said.

The agreement reached in Bonn does not require states to contribute to the funds, nor does it set target amounts. However, a political declaration by the EU and several other countries reaffirmed a strong political commitment to increase climate change funding for developing nations and to pay their fare share. EU representatives said their share would be about $400 million per year by 2005.

Ministers in Bonn reached agreement on the final details of the Kyoto Protocol after the chairman of the talks, Jan Pronk of the Netherlands, issued a 15-page final compromise proposal for settling remaining disputes.

Pronk told the conference delegates that he would listen to their suggestions for possible changes to the proposal, but would not allow any amendments to be attached to the document. "I know that one amendment will catalyze hundreds of amendments," he said. "We don't want to have a second failure."

The climate negotiations were suspended November 2000 in The Hague after delegates were unable to reach agreement on the final terms and conditions of the protocol.

Under the agreement reached in Bonn, to meet their emissions targets countries are granted wide use of so-called carbon "sinks" -- forests and farmland that absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere -- provided the forests are managed and farmland practices improved. This lowers the amount of industrial emissions a country is required to cut.

The sinks issue became a major point of contention during the negotiations in Bonn between the European Union and countries like Canada, Japan, Australia and Russia. The European Union wanted strict limits placed on forest and agriculture credits in an effort to avoid what it called loopholes for pollution. A dispute over carbon sinks was the major reason negotiators failed to reach an agreement in The Hague last November.

The protocol will permit generous use of emissions trading -- which allows a country reducing its greenhouse gas emissions below what is required to sell or trade the excess reductions to offset emissions in another country. During the negotiations, the European Union had sought to cap emissions trading so that industrialized states would be forced to meet at least half of their Kyoto targets by cutting domestic emissions from factory smokestacks and power plants.

But the protocol will not allow industrialized countries to claim credits for building nuclear power plants in developing countries -- another major point of contention during the negotiations. Under the protocol's clean development mechanism, developed countries can undertake clean-energy projects in developing countries to gain emissions credits. Nuclear power does not produce carbon dioxide, but was strongly opposed by the European Union due to concerns about accidents and problems with radioactive waste storage.

The protocol also calls for tough penalties for developed countries not meeting their emissions targets -- but at this point the penalties are not legally binding.

(The Washington File is distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)