World puts heat on U.S. at climate meeting

MONTREAL (AP) -- The United States went on the defensive Wednesday as much of the world pushed for redoubled efforts to rein in carbon emissions and fight climate change. Canada, host of a 190-nation U.N. climate conference, worked to find a compromise route forward.

Arctic natives, whose icy homelands have begun to melt, announced at the gathering that they were filing an international human rights complaint against the United States, to try to pressure Washington to cap "greenhouse gases."

Bangladesh Ambassador Rafiq Ahmed Khan, whose low-lying land faces future flooding from seas rising with global warming, spoke on behalf of the poorest nations.

"Only strong political will can show the way," he told delegates. "These impacts are felt mostly by the people who are poor and most vulnerable.

It was the first annual U.N. climate conference since the Kyoto Protocol took effect in February, requiring 35 industrialized countries to curb emissions of carbon dioxide and five other gases that act like a greenhouse trapping heat in the atmosphere.

Among major developed nations, only the United States and Australia reject that agreement, worked out in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, and designed to produce an average 5 percent reduction of emissions below 1990 levels by 2012.

Under the protocol, talks must now begin on emissions controls after 2012. Canadian Environment Minister Stephane Dion this week proposed a plan for "discussions to explore and analyze approaches for long-term cooperative action to address climate change," with a deadline for agreement by 2008.

The U.S. delegation, with three days left in the two-week conference, has thus far rejected joining such global talks, preferring to deal with other governments on a bilateral or regional basis - and on voluntary approaches to reducing emissions.

"We see no change in current conditions that would result in a negotiated agreement consistent with the U.S. approach," said Harlan Watson, chief U.S. negotiator here.

But Dion suggested acceptable language might still be found to get the Americans on board. Closed-door talks "have been frank and productive," he told delegates at Wednesday's open session. "There is an urgent need to send a signal to the world about the future."

A broad scientific consensus agrees that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, a byproduct of automobile engines, power plants and other fossil fuel-burning industries, has contributed significantly to the past century's global temperature rise - of 0.7 degrees Celsius, or 1 degree Fahrenheit.

In October, NASA climatologists projected from thousands of temperature readings that 2005 would end as the warmest year globally since records were first kept in the mid-19th century.

The potential impacts are extensive: Small islands fear expanding and rising seas; poor nations face water shortages if warmth washes away glaciers; climate change may kill off traditional crops.

An authoritative, intergovernmental study last year found that rapid warming in the Arctic, by disrupting animal and plant life, already threatens "the destruction of the hunting and food-gathering culture of the Inuit in this century," noted Paul Crowley of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, representing native northerners worldwide.

Crowley announced that the Inuit conference was filing a complaint with the Inter American Human Rights Commission seeking a decision pressuring the United States to act more urgently to avert climate change.

In 2000, the latest year for which statistics are available, the United States was by far the world's leading greenhouse-gas emitter, accounting for 21 percent of the total.

President Bush rejected the Kyoto Protocol in 2001, saying limiting fuel burning would crimp the U.S. economy, and complaining that fast-growing economies such as China's and India's weren't targeted under the accord.

China in 2000 accounted for almost 15 percent of emissions, but its per capita emissions were less than one-sixth that of the United States. The Canadians and others hope, however, that such major developing countries will take action on climate in the next phase.

Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, opening Wednesday's high-level phase of the conference, addressed the American economic argument.

"Surely we realize by now that a greater cost will be exacted if we lack the will or tenacity to change," he said to loud applause.

Twenty-five leading U.S. economists, including three Nobel laureates, wrote to Bush on Wednesday reiterating that argument. One, Columbia University's Geoff Heal, told reporters here that U.S. compliance with the Kyoto mandate would have shrunk the U.S. gross domestic product by 1 percent. "That's one-quarter of our economic growth, a small amount to pay," he said.

Instead of mandatory controls, the Bush administration has focused its climate efforts on long-term development of energy-saving technology, and on voluntary agreements to restrain emissions growth.

International Cooperation:
The United States is engaged in extensive international efforts on climate change, both through multilateral and bilateral activities. The President’s FY 2006 Budget includes $198 million for international climate change assistance. Multilaterally, the United States is by far the largest funder of activities under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The President’s FY 2006 Budget contains $5 million for the UNFCCC and IPCC. We remain fully engaged in multilateral negotiations under the UNFCCC, and have created or worked to revitalize a range of international climate initiatives within the last two years, including the following programs:

Methane-to-Markets Partnership: Announced by the EPA in July 2004, the Methane-to-Markets Partnership is a new and innovative program to help promote energy security, improve environmental quality, and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions throughout the world. The Partnership will work closely with the private sector in targeting methane currently wasted from leaky oil and gas systems, from underground coal mines, and from landfills. EPA estimates that this Partnership could recover up to 500-billion cubic feet of natural gas (50-million metric tons of carbon equivalent) annually by 2015. Capturing and using “waste” methane will provide for a new energy source that stimulates economic growth and reduces global emissions of this powerful greenhouse gas. The United States will commit up to $53 million to the Partnership over the next five years. Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, Colombia, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, Russia, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom joined the United States in launching the Methane to Markets Partnership at a November 2004 Ministerial meeting in Washington, DC. The private sector, development banks, and other governmental and non-governmental organizations are encouraged to participate in the Partnership through becoming a member of the Project Network. For more information, please visit http://www.epa.gov/methane/international.html and www.methanetomarkets.org.

International Partnership for a Hydrogen Economy: Announced by the Secretary of Energy in April 2003 to implement internationally the goals of President Bush’s Hydrogen Fuel Initiative and FreedomCar Partnership, the United States hosted the first Ministerial meeting of the International Partnership for a Hydrogen Economy in Washington, D.C., in November 2003. The Partnership’s 15 countries and the European Union (EU) are working together to advance the global transition to the hydrogen economy, with the goal of making fuel-cell vehicles commercially available by 2020. The Partnership will work to advance research, development, and deployment of hydrogen and fuel-cell technologies, and develop common codes and standards for hydrogen use. For more information, please visit www.eere.energy.gov/hydrogenandfuelcells/international_activities.html.

Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum: The United States hosted the first meeting of the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF) in Tysons Corner, Virginia, in June 2003. CSLF is focused on the development of improved cost-effective technologies for the separation and capture of carbon dioxide for its transport and long-term storage. The purpose of the CSLF is to make these technologies broadly available internationally, and to identify and address wider issues relating to carbon capture and storage. CSLF, which now includes 15 countries and the EU, held its second Ministerial meeting in September 2004 in Melbourne, Australia, where ministers approved 10 capture and storage projects as well as a Technology Roadmap to provide future directions for international cooperation. For more information, please visit www.fe.doe.gov/programs/sequestration/cslf/.

Generation IV International Forum: The United States has led the development of the Generation IV International Forum, a multilateral partnership fostering international cooperation in research and development for the next generation of safer, more affordable, and more proliferation-resistant nuclear energy systems. This new generation of nuclear power plants could produce electricity and hydrogen with substantially less waste and without emitting any air pollutants or greenhouse-gas emissions. Since the Forum was formally established in July 2001, the United States has led the development of a technology roadmap, and increased support for R&D projects carried out in support of the Forum’s goals. For more information, please visit http://gen-iv.ne.doe.gov/intl.html.

Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership: Formed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa, in August 2002, the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) seeks to accelerate and expand the global market for renewable energy and energy-efficiency technologies. As the world’s largest producer and consumer of renewable energy, and with more renewable energy generation capacity than Germany, Denmark, Sweden, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom combined, the United States is one of 17 countries who are partners in REEEP. The United States also actively participated in the Renewables 2004 conference sponsored by the German Government in June 2004, and submitted five action items intended to provide specific technology plans and cost targets for renewable energy technologies using solar, biomass, wind, and geothermal resources.

Regional and Bilateral Cooperation: The United States has negotiated agreements with major international partners to pursue research on global climate change and deploy climate observation systems, collaborate on energy and sequestration technologies, and explore methodologies for monitoring and measuring greenhouse-gas emissions. Since June 2001, the United States has launched bilateral partnerships with Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama, the EU, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, and South Africa on issues ranging from climate-change science to energy and sequestration technologies to policy approaches. The countries covered by these bilateral partnerships account for over 70% of global greenhouse-gas emissions.

Global Environmental Facility: Global Environmental Facility: The Global Environmental Facility (GEF) is the financial mechanism under the UNFCCC. The United States contributes more than any other country to the GEF. The FY 2006 request for the GEF includes $25 million for climate change-related programs, roughly 23% of the total request for GEF ($107.5 million). This commitment will fund technology transfer and capacity building in developing countries.

Tropical Forest Conservation Act (TFCA): As of May 2005, eight countries have TFCA agreements: Bangladesh, Belize, Colombia, El Salvador, Panama (two agreements), Peru, the Philippines, and Jamaica. These agreements are offered to eligible developing countries to relieve certain official debt owed the United States while at the same time generating funds to support local tropical forest conservation activities that store carbon. These agreements will generate over $95 million for tropical forest conservation in countries over the life of the agreements.

President's Initiative Against Illegal Logging: On July 28, 2003, the Department of State launched the President’s Initiative Against Illegal Logging, developed with the objective of assisting developing countries in their efforts to combat illegal logging, including the sale and export of illegally harvested timber, and in fighting corruption in the forest sector. The initiative represents the most comprehensive strategy undertaken by any nation to address this critical sustainable development challenge, and reinforces the U.S. leadership role in taking action to counter the problem and preserve forest resources that store carbon. For more information, please visit www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2003/22843.htm.

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