29 October 2001

Negotiators Meet in Marrakech for Climate Talks

By Jim Fuller
Washington File Science Writer

Negotiators from around the world are meeting October 29 to November 9 in Marrakech, Morocco, to write the detailed operational rules of the Kyoto Protocol, which would commit developed countries to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases linked to global warming.

A U.S. delegation led by Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky is participating in the climate change talks, although the Bush administration has declared its opposition to the Kyoto Protocol.

The environmental ministers and senior officials now attending the seventh session of the Conference of Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, known as COP-7, reached a broad political agreement on the rulebook for the 1997 Kyoto Protocol last July in Bonn. The primary challenge in Marrakech will be turning the broad principles of the Bonn Agreement into detailed legal text clearly defining the operating rules for new instruments and institutions created under Kyoto.

The protocol calls on developed countries to reduce their overall emissions of greenhouse gases by at least five percent below 1990 levels by 2012, with specific targets varying from country to country. Most scientists agree that the Earth's climate is being affected by the buildup of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.

"Certainty about the Kyoto Protocol's rules will further motivate businesses and other economic actors to create the low-carbon economy of the future," said Michael Zammit Cutajar, executive secretary of the climate change convention. "It will also clear the way for governments to ratify the protocol and bring it into force.

"Marrakech should be the turning point that enables the protocol to move into high gear," he added.

In recent weeks, a number of senior government and U.N. officials have expressed the hope that success at COP-7 would pave the way for entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol by September 2002, when the World Summit of Sustainable Development is scheduled to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Although more than 80 countries have signed the protocol, most have been waiting for the negotiation of its operational details before deciding whether to ratify the treaty.

U.S. Senior Climate Negotiator Harlan Watson, in remarks delivered on October 2, reiterated the Bush administration's contention that the Kyoto Protocol is flawed, and that the United States does not intend to ratify the agreement.

"The United States does not believe that the Kyoto Protocol is the right answer to the challenge of climate change," Watson said. The protocol's targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions "are arbitrary and in many cases unrealistic," he said, the treaty "does not include developing countries, and its costs would harm the U.S. economy."

At the same time, he said the United States has pledged continued support of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, which commits both developed and developing countries to adopt national programs for mitigating climate change and developing strategies for adapting to its impacts.

Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters earlier this year that the United States is not shrinking from the challenge of climate change.

"The United States has a good record with respect to environmental issues, has a good record with respect to cleaning up pollution in our country and working with other countries to do likewise.... We just did not find that the Kyoto Protocol was the way for us to push forward and try to achieve that common objective," he said.

He added that President Bush is committed to working with all nations "who are involved in this process to find ways that we can join consensus at some point in the future, but the Kyoto Protocol ... is not acceptable to the United States."

President Bush's Cabinet has for months been reviewing existing U.S. climate change policy and making recommendations for new ways -- both domestic and international -- to address the complex issue.

One major initiative, for example, calls for assisting developing countries in the Western Hemisphere to acquire the tools and expertise needed to measure and monitor greenhouse gas emissions, promoting the export of climate-friendly, clean energy technologies, and promoting sustainable forest conservation and land use in the developing world.

Another initiative calls for the U.S. Energy Department to work in collaboration with nine energy companies from six industrialized nations to develop breakthrough technologies to reduce the cost of capturing carbon dioxide from fossil fuel combustion and safely storing it underground.

U.S. legislation proposed or being developed in Congress could also result in significant domestic efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

In Marrakech, protocol negotiators will try to reach consensus on a host of critical details in four principal areas: operating rules for emissions trading and other market-based mechanisms that make it easier for developed countries to meet their emissions targets; how the sequestration of carbon by forests and other carbon "sinks" will be credited toward Kyoto emission targets; funding to help developing countries combat and cope with climate change; and mechanisms to encourage and enforce compliance with the Kyoto targets.