By Henry Lamb
BONN - Environmental Ministers from around the world took turns Tuesday, pointing an accusing finger at the United States, blaming everything from the cyclone in India to the poverty in Rwanda, on America's failure to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.
Ghana's Alhaji Farouk Brimah, told the delegates assembled in Bonn, Germany, that unless the Kyoto Protocol is brought into force by 2002, this could be the "last human generation on this planet."
As the two-week negotiating session on global warming draws to a close, the urgency of finalizing the rules of implementation of the Kyoto Protocol is the clarion cry of delegates from the developing nations. The U.N. treaty cannot go into force until it is ratified by 55 nations that account for 55 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. Under no circumstance can the treaty become effective without ratification by the United States.
Speaker after speaker chided the U.S. for its lack of action on global warming. "We must do at home what we negotiate abroad, " declared the spokesman for the European Union.
"We must negotiate abroad what we can ratify at home," responded Frank Loy, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs. Loy told the delegates that the "U.S. is more committed than ever," to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. "President Clinton has launched significant new initiatives to complete the work begun in Kyoto," he said.
This admission by Loy could stir a hostile Congress that has stipulated that no funds be used to implement any requirements of the Kyoto Protocol.
Loy said that he believed the Protocol could be ratified by the United States if two conditions were met: (1) reasonable implementation costs, and (2) "meaningful participation" by developing countries. Estimates of cost for implementing the treaty vary widely, depending upon who is doing the estimating. "Meaningful participation" by developing countries is a term yet to be defined, over which the Congress and the White House have differing views.
A resolution adopted unanimously by the U.S. Senate last year said clearly that the Protocol would not be ratified unless it applied to all nations. That requirement set by the Senate is substantially more stringent than "meaningful participation" required by the White House.
In an effort to aid the U.S. delegation, Argentina, Columbia, Korea and Kazakhstan have announced that they would accept "voluntary, non-binding commitments" to comply with the Protocol. China, on the other hand, which is expected to surpass the U.S. emissions output within the next decade, stood firm on its pledge to accept no new commitments. Zimbabwe's Minister of Environment and Energy, Simon Khayo Moyo, said that "calling for new commitments by developing nations is not helpful to the negotiations."
Italy, Germany, and France announced that their countries have adopted an eco-tax on carbon as a part of their plan to reduce emissions. Sweden's Minister, Kjell Larsson, said his country has a ten-year history of carbon tax, and called for an international tax on fossil fuels as a way to regulate its use, and to supply a stream of money to fund sustainable development in poor countries. "International responsibilities must take precedence over national desires," he said.
Developing nations see the Kyoto Protocol as a cash cow. The CDM (clean development mechanism) will provide money for projects in developing countries that the U.N. determines to be "sustainable." Speaker after speaker urged the delegates to exclude nuclear energy from the list of eligible projects. The Climate Action Network, the largest and most powerful coalition of GAGs (green advocacy groups) present at the meeting, is urging that nuclear, coal and large hydro projects be excluded from eligibility. What is eligible, or "sustainable," is an issue that has yet to be decided by the delegates.
The high-level Ministerial discussions will continue for another day. The delegates will meet again in June to continue to reach agreement on the rules of implementation. All rules are to be finalized by COP 6, which is scheduled for next year in the Hague. Delegates have set 2002 as a symbolic deadline - Rio +10 - as the deadline for bringing the Kyoto Protocol into force.
Henry Lamb is the executive vice president of the Environmental Conservation Organization (ECO), and chairman of Sovereignty International.