US, Japan, Canada accused of obstruction at climate conference

Dec 5, 2007, 11:22 GMT

Bali Island, Indonesia - The United States, Japan and Canada are putting the brakes on progress in the fight against global warming, observers at a UN climate change conference charged Wednesday.

They have tried to curtail ambitious goals and concrete promises in all rounds of negotiations, said Meena Raman, chairwoman of the Friends of the Earth, a coalition of environmental groups.

Even establishing a working group to address questions of technology transfer has encountered resistance from the three countries, Raman said.

'It appears that the Americans here are not serious,' said Hans Verolme, director of the climate change programme at the World Wide Fund for Nature.

The US side often talks about how new technologies can hold back climate change, but when it comes to doing something concrete, like aid to developing countries, it blocks it, he charged.

 Industrialized countries committed themselves years ago to help less developed countries with clean technologies for better energy use but the promises have not been kept, Raman added.

'If the record shows that the obligations of the industrialised nations have not been met how can you expect the developing countries to step up to the plate?' the head of Friends of the Earth charged.

Criticism also came from the United States itself as 11 senior US congressmen urged the participants at the Bali conference, which is seen as the launch pad for talks on a treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, to disregard the US government and negotiate an effective pact to fight climate change.

The Democratic legislators looked ahead to next year's US elections and the January 2009 departure of Republican President George W Bush, who has rejected binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions. They criticized Bush's stance, saying it didn't reflect widespread US public opinion, and predicted a change on US policy on global warming with a new administration.

'While the current administration continues to drag its feet on climate change, the American public and mainstream political leaders are ready for action now,' the lawmakers said in a letter to Yvo de Boer, general secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The United States has proposed voluntary curbs of greenhouse gases, the emissions linked to global warming. The European Union has rejected such a plan, seeking binding reductions.

Joining Washington against a binding treaty has been oil-producing Saudi Arabia and developing countries, which fear emission cuts would also curb their economic growth. They have said developed countries are responsible for the majority of greenhouse gases and should, therefore, bear the largest responsibility.

The European director of the Climate Action Network said he wants to see clear promises from the US, Japan and Canada to meet the goal of lowering greenhouse emissions 25 to 40 per cent from 1990 levels by 2020 - the recommendation of a Bali conference preparatory meeting in Vienna.

'If we want to chart out a road map [for a new climate change regime], the question is: a roadmap to where?' Matthias Duwe said.

The Kyoto Protocol, the treaty aimed at fighting global warming, expires in 2012 and prescribes emission cuts for 36 industrialized nations. The US refused to ratify Kyoto, and many industrialized countries that did are not on target to meet its emission-cutting goals.