Posted on 08/22/2007 6:34:23 PM PDT by blam
UN official: Rich countries pay poor to cut CO2
By Paul Eccleston
Last Updated: 1:01pm BST 22/08/2007
A top UN official has triggered a row by claiming rich countries should be allowed to buy their way out of cutting carbon emissions.
Two men fish in a lake next to a copper-smelting plant in Chelyabinsk, Russia
Yvo de Boer, head of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) said developing countries could be paid to make the cuts.
But environmental groups condemned the remarks and said the consequences of climate change could only be solved by all countries - both rich and poor - cutting CO2 emissions.
Under the Kyoto Agreement industrialised nations are required to make the majority of the cuts themselves.
But Mr de Boer said the climate change challenge was so great that countries should be allowed to pay poorer countries to make the cuts for them.
"We have been reducing emissions and making energy use more efficient in industrialised countries for a long time," he told BBC News.
"So it is quite expensive in these nations to reduce emissions any more," he told the BBC. "But in developing nations, less has been done to reduce emissions and less has been done to address energy efficiency," Mr de Boer observed.
"So it actually becomes economically quite attractive for a company, for example in the UK, that has a target to achieve this goal by reducing emissions in China."
He said if necessary rich countries should be able to pay to offset all their responsibilities.
But conservation groups said the offsetting plan went against the spirit of the 'polluter pays' policy adopted by the UN.
Friends of the Earth climate campaigner, Robin Webster said: "This proposal doesn't make environmental, economic or political sense.
"Emissions need to go down in industrialised countries if we are going to get to grips with climate change. We simply don't have the option of buying our way out of trouble. Rich and poor nations need to work together - the longer we leave it to take action the more damaging it will be to our economy and the environment.
"By introducing a strong climate change law that commits the UK to reducing its emissions by at least 3 per cent a year the Government can ensure the UK plays its part in tackling climate change."
Doug Parr of Greenpeace said: "The current trading system is not delivering emissions reductions as it is," he said. "Expanding it like this to give rich countries a completely free hand will simply not work."
With all the CO2 Al Gore consumes, many third world nations will have to do without energy.
I thought that is what carbon credits were for.
I believe Al Gore did an end-around on the UN. He will be in Ft. Marcy park by Christmas.
Lawrence Solomon's "The Deniers" (a series of articles on the view of scientists who have been labelled "Global Warming Deniers"):
Other References:
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