TIME FOR ACTION

The signing of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at the Earth Summit in 1992 seemed a great step forward in international efforts to tackle climate change. But 8 years later, there is little sign of the commitment and action required to cut emissions to the levels required to avert dangerous climate change.

Developed countries are overwhelmingly responsible, historically and currently, for the great majority of greenhouse gas emissions. Industrialised countries generate over 62 times more carbon dioxide pollution per person than the least developed countries. The world's top three emitters are the US, Australia and Canada Recognising this - and the fact that the greatest priority for developing countries is the alleviation of poverty - the UNFCCC requires the industrialised world to make the first moves on cutting emissions.

INTERNATIONAL ACTION TO CURB CLIMATE CHANGE

In 1997, in response to the threat of climate change, the world's governments agreed the Kyoto Protocol. This was the long awaited supplement to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which was adopted at the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992 and requires nations to protect the climate system.

Under the Kyoto protocol, industrialised nations are committed to reducing their overall emissions of greenhouse gases by 5.2 percent over the coming decade. But the Protocol is yet to enter into force and its agreed targets are only a first step to prevent dangerous climate change. While eighty-four countries have signed the Protocol, only 22 have ratified it and none of these are from the industrialised world. Meanwhile, the target set by the UNFCCC of 1992 (to stabilise emissions on 1990 levels by the year 2000) has been missed by almost all major polluters.

In November 2000, governments will meet again for the sixth Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC (COP 6). Their task is to finalise the details of the Kyoto Protocol. It is vitally important that the decisions taken do not water down this key environmental agreement - unless we want extreme weather events to become the norm.

TARGET MISSED, EMISSIONS KEEP RISING

Signs of real action to cut emissions remain woefully weak among the world's heaviest polluters. Greenhouse gas emissions in the OECD countries have risen by 4% between 1990 and 1996 (OECD, 1999), despite the fact that most of these countries pledged to return their greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2000.

Governments are failing to meet their commitment to stabilise at 1990 levels let alone begin making the cuts in emissions as agreed under the Kyoto Protocol. Worrying indeed given that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has indicated that world-wide cuts in carbon dioxide of at least 60-70% percent are necessary to guarantee no further increase in atmospheric concentrations.

Many EU countries are set to miss their Kyoto targets altogether. Among the European nations, only the UK and Germany are even coming close while the rest have actually increased their emissions. The Netherlands committed to a 6 percent emissions cut but has instead increased emissions by 17 percent.

Elsewhere, the same curious absence of efforts for self-preservation is revealed in the fact that greenhouse gas emissions in Australia have also risen. Australia agreed to limit growth in greenhouse gas emissions to eight percent above 1990 levels by 2010. Instead, by 1998, emissions were up 16.9 percent on 1990 levels. Defending this position, the Environment Minister, explained that the rise in greenhouse gas emissions from stationary sources is due to Australia's strong economic growth. This is short-termism at its worst as it ignores the future cost to the economy of climate change.

Meanwhile US Ambassador Mark Hambley claims that the United States is taking the fight against climate change seriously and is committed to an equitable global solution. However, the US, the world's top emitter of greenhouse gases says its ratification depends on the "meaningful participation of developing countries".

Despite being the world's leading greenhouse gas emitter, the US has tried to shift responsibility, with some claiming that the Kyoto Protocol "...is blatantly unfair because it exempts developing nations from making any commitment to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases. As a result, nations like China, India, Mexico and Brazil, [...] will be given a free pass while the United States is forced to struggle with the Kyoto treaty's stringent mandates". Not only is the US position in direct conflict with the spirit of the Climate Convention there seems little possibility of the US meeting its targets - unless they start taking their commitments seriously now.

Last year's disasters

International action against climate change

Friends of the Earth's call for action at COP 6

How governments try to wreck the Kyoto Protocol

The UNFCCC

The Kyoto Protocol

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