Developing countries, int'l organizations call to save Kyoto Protocol
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Since the United Nations climate change talks began in Barcelona Monday, developing countries and international organizations have expressed strong desire to continue with the Kyoto Protocol, while "some developed countries are plotting the death of it."
At the opening session of the conference, Ibrahim Mirghani Ibrahim, the top negotiator from Sudan, which this year chairs the Group of 77 and China,, said that the Kyoto Protocol must be followed.
"The killing of the Kyoto Protocol would have the effect of undermining the foundational principles of equity, common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities and ultimately puts at risk any ambitious outcome to aggressively address climate change in Copenhagen," he said.
Third World Network (TWN), an international non-profit organization, said in a briefing paper released during the conference that "some developed countries are plotting the death of the Kyoto Protocol".
According to the TWN, misinformation has been circulated to the media and public that the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012 and the U.N. climate change conference in Copenhagen in December is to agree or lay the foundations of a new treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol.
"Nothing could be further from the truth," the TWN said, stressing "the negotiations are not about ending the Kyoto Protocol, but implementing it."
Since 2006, the international community has been negotiating the next commitment period for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol in a working group known as the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP).
Those negotiations are scheduled for completion in 2009, so that the second commitment period can enter into force by 2013.
In Bali in December 2007, the international community launched a second track of negotiations in parallel under the Bali Action Plan, that is the Ad hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action (AWG-LAC).
This working group aims to enhance the implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), the framework agreement, under which the Kyoto Protocol sets out specifically how much Annex I countries should reduce their emissions, and how.
The AWG-LAC's work is to be concluded in 2009, and the agreed action will be for "now, up to and beyond 2012".
The AWG-KP is a negotiating track under the Kyoto Protocol and the UNFCC. Therefore, there are to be two outcomes in Copenhagen, and they are to be legally and substantively distinct.
However, a number of developed countries, including Japan and Australia have advocated to have one single agreement in Copenhagen, merging the two tracks and outcomes together.
The reason why some developed countries want to merge the two tracks is to force "major economies" or "advanced developing countries" that is China, Indian, Brazil to take on internationally binding commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and divide developing countries, said Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Aping, a senior member of the Sudanese delegation to the U.N. talks and a representative of the Group of 77 and China.
By reclassifying some developing countries or the so-called advanced developing countries, "they are playing the game of dividing developing countries", Di-Aping said.
Another motivation of merging the two tracks for some developed countries is to lower the level of their commitments or avoid taking on internationally binding emission reduction commitments altogether, he said.
While some developed countries are trying to dismantle the Kyoto Protocol, Yve De Boer, executive secretary of the UNFCC, told Xinhua in an exclusive interview that "until the moment the Kyoto Protocol is the only thing we have."
"There is a saying in my language that if you only have one pair of shoes, don't throw them away before you have new ones," said Yve De Boer. "So, at the moment Kyoto is my shoes and I would like to keep them on until I know there are something better for me to have."
Su Wei, the top Chinese negotiator to the U.N, climate change talks, also emphasized during an interview with Xinhua, that the two track negotiating mechanisms must be adhered to and the Kyoto Protocol must be followed.
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