BY JIM GREEN
A fortnight of negotiations at the climate change conference at the Hague, involving delegations from more than 160 countries, have failed to conclude an international agreement on greenhouse gas emission reduction.
Conference president and Dutch environment minister Jan Pronk put forward a proposal that attempted to reconcile the positions of the two most powerful groupings, the European Union (EU) and the "umbrella group", which includes the United States, Australia, Japan and Canada.
Friends of the Earth International found numerous problems with the Pronk plan:
- it would allow global greenhouse gas emissions to rise by more than 5% by the end of the first commitment period (from 1990 to 2008-2012);
- it would do little to protect developing countries, which suffer most from the effects of climate change;
- it was generous in its allowance of carbon sinks such as forests and farmlands;
- it would encourage the destruction of old growth forests and their replacement by monoculture plantations under the Clean Development Mechanism, which involves developing countries funding projects in Third World countries;
- it would create a huge market in "hot air" trading, which would be exploited for profit by multinational companies and finance agencies;
- it stated that reductions should be made "primarily through domestic action" but did not impose a specific cap on the use of the various "flexibility mechanisms" which would allow countries to go part or all the way to meeting emissions targets without actually reducing domestic emissions;
- it allows developed countries accumulate carbon credits by financing, building and extending the life of nuclear power plants in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet countries (although the Pronk plan did preclude nuclear transfers to Third World countries as a method of accumulating carbon credits); and
- it is weak on compliance and penalties, requiring only that countries add their unmet Kyoto targets in the first commitment period to their targets in the next period.
Delegates from the EU and the US rejected the Pronk proposal. "We are taking a step backward", said French environment minister Dominique Voynet, speaking for the European Union. Instead of greenhouse gases being reduced, they could increase because of the loopholes, she said.
The interests of Third Word countries were all but forgotten as the rich capitalist countries squabbled, tried to enlarge every loophole and to avoid any action at home to cut emissions from fossil fuel use. Representatives from small island states held a press conference on November 23 in which they made it clear that they were already in grave danger from the effects of climate change, and were increasingly angry at the slow progress at the Hague and the obstructive attitude of the US, Japan, Canada and Australia in particular.
'Fossil of the Day'
Australian delegates persisted with the view that sales of nuclear power plants to Third World countries ought to win the vendor country carbon credits even after the US had given up on that rort. On November 23, Australia, along with Japan and Canada, were awarded the 'Fossil of the Day Award' from a coalition of environment groups for being the only governments still opposing the explicit exclusion of nuclear power in the Clean Development Mechanism.
Efforts by the Australian delegation to include not just forests but every twig of Australian foliage as a "carbon sink" also caused derision.
On November 23, international environment groups awarded Forestry Tasmania second prize in the special "Treetanic" awards for implementing the worst carbon "sink" (plantation) projects in the world. Forestry Tasmania is logging native forests and replacing them with large-scale plantations. Australian Greens Senator Bob Brown said he was disappointed with the result and appealed for a hand count of the vote.
Protests
The Hague conference was marked by protests from thousands of environmentalists. On November 16, Greenpeace activists stopped coal from being loaded into the Hemweg power station in the Dutch capital Amsterdam. The activists locked themselves to a conveyor belt. The protest followed four days of action in Rotterdam harbour, where activists boarded the 150,000-tonne bulk carrier La Paloma carrying a coal shipment from Australia.
On November 18, 5000 people used 50,000 sandbags to build a "dike' encircling the conference centre, highlighting the impact of rising sea levels on low-lying countries. The stunt was coordinated by Friends of the Earth Netherlands. The dike was covered with banners, flags and messages from groups and individuals from more than 50 countries.
On November 23, 40 activists disrupted a closed session of the conference and read a statement describing the talks as a farce. Senior US negotiator Frank Loy was covered in cream cake.
A conference spokesperson said it was possible the delegations would reconvene in a special meeting next autumn to resume discussions. Another full conference is scheduled for later next year in Morocco.
In his ministerial statement to the Hague conference, Australian environment minister Robert Hill said Australia would not be able to cut greenhouse gases further until the international emission reduction regime was clarified. "We have now reached the level beyond which our domestic response cannot pass without further decisions internationally", Hill claimed.
On November 25, after the conclusion of the Hague conference, a spokesperson for Greenpeace Fiji told BBC radio that only public pressure could re-establish momentum towards greenhouse gas reduction. "It is up to the public to put pressure on their governments that this unacceptable behaviour cannot continue", she said.