Dec '00 / Jan 2001
A
Gift Given, A Gift Received: Water
to Iraq
By Edilith Eckart
Election Analysis Progressive
Directions?
By Bill Thomson
Modernizing Our Electoral Rules
&
Practices
By Rob Richie
Democracy 101
By Blair Bobier
Clean Money: Campaign Finance
Reform
By John Moyers
Book Review: The Cultural Creatives
Paul H. Ray & Sherry Ruth
Anderson Reviewed by
Peter Montague
Remembrance: Robert Theobald
By Bob Stilger
Transforming Our Dreaming
By José Stevens
Democracy and the Airwaves
By Suzi Aufderheide
StarLink: More Bad News for Biotech
by Ronnie Cummins
The US Is Warned "Wake Up
To Global Warming Threat"
By Environmental News Service
U.S. Position Threatens to
Derail Climate Change Negotiations
By Cat Lazaroff
Martin Luther King, Jr: Global and
Social Shaman
By Royal E. Alsup, Ph.D.
Sexual Union, Inside and Out
By Peter Moore
A Pagan Speak to Jesus
By John Darling
Cosmic Calendar
By Salina Rain
U.S. Position
Derails Climate Change Negotiations
By
Cat Lazaroff
The United States
took a tough stance regarding the compromises it is willing to make in last
November's international climate change negotiations in the Netherlands. The
U.S. position threatens to alienate the support of some environmental groups,
which could be crucial to the successful implementation of the agreement.
Environmental officials from about 160 governments were represented at the
sixth session of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC), which opened Monday at The Hague. The negotiators are working out
last minute details regarding how the convention, also known as the Kyoto
Protocol, will be implemented and enforced.
A major sticking
point will be the differences in opinion between the United States (US) and
European Union (EU) on which mechanisms should be used to reduce emissions
of global warming gases such as carbon dioxide. At least 15 EU countries pledged
to present a united front in support of strong, enforceable rules for compliance
with the emissions reductions goals set by the convention. Specifically, these
countries want participating nations to agree to real, verifiable cuts in
actual greenhouse gas emissions from factories, utilities, vehicles and other
sources.
The US, along with Canada, Australia, Japan and Norway, is pushing for a variety
of controversial methods that US negotiators claim could prove just as useful
in reducing the impact of greenhouse gases on the environment.
But some scientists
and many environmentalists say the mechanisms supported by the US-the largest
single nation source of greenhouse gases on the planet-would not reduce greenhouse
gas emissions, and could, in some cases, even make the problem of global warming
worse.
Just prior to the start of the negotiations in the Netherlands a coalition
of four national and international environmental groups released a report,
"Legacy of Loopholes," that is strongly critical of the US position.
The report warns that U.S. supported mechanisms, such as emissions trading,
carbon sinks and the so called Clean Development Mechanism, could hamper efforts
to combat global warming and to garner international support for the final
climate change treaty.
"People
around the world want their leaders to bring home real reductions in carbon
pollution-not paper cuts with paper tons," said Jennifer Morgan, director
of the World Wildlife Fund's climate change campaign. The World Wildlife Fund,
one of the authors of the report, is urging Bill Clinton to "bring home
a treaty that cuts global warming pollution in the US."
The report analyzes the following three loopholes:
Emissions Trading: The Kyoto Protocol contains a provision for international
trading of tons of greenhouse gases to reduce the costs of reducing global
warming pollution. Under this mechanism, nations that meet their emissions
goals earlier than required under the treaty could sell "credits"
to nations that are having trouble meeting their deadlines.
US Under Secretary
of State for Global Affairs Frank Loy, who heads the US delegation at the
climate talks, testified before the US Senate earlier this year that one of
the Clinton administration's main goals is to make sure that the final agreement
is cost effective. That is why US negotiators have insisted on inclusion of
market based mechanisms such as emissions trading, Loy said.
Loy said that a well designed emissions trading system will "cut the
cost of reducing greenhouse gases by allowing the marketplace to identify
the most cost effective reductions, thereby making efficient use of limited
global resources."
The US and some
other nations support so called "hot air trading," which would allow
Russia and other former Soviet states to sell emissions credits that they
have accumulated because their economic collapse has drastically reduced their
fossil fuel use. The US could therefore delay its own emissions cuts by buying
credits from a country that has not taken any concrete steps to make long
term reductions in pollution. The US hopes to achieve about 34 percent of
its required emissions reductions through emissions trading.
Carbon Sinks: Forests and other ecosystems are reservoirs, or "sinks,"
for carbon dioxide (CO2), which they absorb as they grow. The US hopes to
meet as much as 36 percent of its emissions cuts through reforestation projects
at home and overseas.
In early November, environmental groups released two reports indicating that
carbon sinks could, in some cases, even increase the amount of CO2 in the
atmosphere. Mature, old growth forests-which absorb less CO2 than growing
vegetation-could be threatened by the drive to plant fast growing, plantation
style trees to mop up CO2.
Many scientists
now say these carbon sinks do not remove enough carbon from the atmosphere
to compensate for actual US emissions. In addition, forests will release their
stored carbon if they are damaged by fires, drought, insect infestation or
other natural problems.
A US State Department report submitted to the United Nations calculates that
about 300 million metric tons of carbon dioxide is absorbed annually in US
forests and in soil used for crops and livestock grazing. US negotiators say
this carbon sink accounts for almost half of the annual carbon emissions reductions
the nation would be expected to make beginning in 2008 under the treaty.
Clean Development Mechanism: The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) allows
industrialized countries to meet some of their emissions targets by investing
in emissions reduction projects in developing countries. The US advocates
rules that could promote environmentally unsound technologies, such as large
scale hydroelectric and nuclear power.
The US, which hopes to meet about 14 percent of emissions reductions through
the CDM, seeks credit for its support of many projects that are already planned
or underway-projects that the developing countries would undertake despite
the US need for credits. With such rules, critics say the CDM would fail to
promote distributed renewable energy, energy efficiency and reductions in
pollution from burning coal and other fossil fuels.
These three loopholes could account for as much as 84 percent of the total
500 to 600 million metric tons of carbon that the US needs to reduce to meet
its treaty target of a seven percent reduction of its 1990 emissions levels.
If the US gets its way, environmental groups charge that greenhouse gas emissions in the US could increase by 18 percent from 1990 levels-while still technically meeting its reduction targets.
"Accounting gimmicks may fool bureaucrats, but they will not fool Mother Nature," said Alden Meyer, director of government relations for the Union of Concerned Scientists. "The climate treaty must make real cuts of real pollution or the severe storms and other impacts that we are already starting to see will only get worse."
Regardless of
the final form that the Kyoto Protocol takes, the US Senate may still oppose
ratification of the treaty. Although the US has signed the treaty, it cannot
take effect until it is ratified by a majority of the countries responsible
for most of the world's greenhouse gas pollution-including the US. Senator
Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican, said the newly divided Senate, which the
recent elections left split between Democrats and Republicans, will not "even
come close" to ratifying the accord.
Without Senate ratification, the Kyoto Protocol would be essentially unenforceable
in the US-particularly if its final form contains so many loopholes that the
treaty loses the support of the environmental groups that have been the agreement's
strongest proponents.
"The US is the world's biggest global warming polluter and is shirking
our responsibility to cut our pollution," said Daniel Becker, director
of the Sierra Club's Global Warming and Energy Program. "The US should
not be allowed to pollute more because our forests absorb some of the carbon
pollution we emit · The US must act now to cut our auto and power plant emissions
to become the world's leader in cutting our global warming pollution, instead
of the world leader in creative accounting and passing the buck."
Provided by the Environment News Service (ENS) http://ens-news.com
