CLIMATE CHANGE:
Latin America Wants Rich
Nations to Foot the Bill
By Mario Osava*
RIO DE JANEIRO, (Tierramérica)
- Latin American
governments will call
for greater commitments
from industrialised
countries to curb
climate change and to
provide financial
support for developing
countries to deal with
its effects.
That is the plan Latin
America takes to the
13th Conference of
Parties (COP13) to the
United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate
Change, Dec. 3-14 in
Bali, Indonesia.
The industrialised
nations promised to
contribute to a special
fund for climate change
adaptation measures, but
"nothing has been given
so far," complained José
Domingos Miguez,
secretary of Brazil's
Interministerial
Commission on Climate
Change and one of his
country's
representatives heading
to COP13.
It was agreed that the
fund would reach the
equivalent of two
percent of the resources
negotiated in the Clean
Development Mechanism (CDM),
but there are
differences about which
body would be in charge
of managing those
resources.
The CDM is one of the
instruments defined in
the Kyoto Protocol on
Climate Change to help
industrialised countries
meet their obligations
in reducing
greenhouse-effect gases
by investing in "clean"
projects in the
developing world.
Because the rich
countries are the "most
responsible" for global
warming, they have "the
moral obligation to
finance the adaptation
plans and actions in
developing countries,"
especially the most
vulnerable, like the
small island nations,
said Omar Rivera, expert
with Cuba's Ministry of
Science, Technology and
Environment, and who
will also be going to
Bali for the climate
conference.
Many islands will
disappear or will lose
much of their land and
beaches as a result of
rising sea levels caused
by the melting of polar
ice. And in the Andes,
for example, the melting
of glaciers means there
will be less fresh water
for mountain
communities.
The financing and
support for confronting
climate change's
negative effects are "a
priority" to be defended
by Peru, "a highly
vulnerable country,"
according to Vanesa
Vereau, president of the
non-governmental United
by Climate Change
Association, which also
is demanding that Lima
take a "firm stance" in
demanding greater
commitments to reduce
greenhouse gas
emissions.
To implement the
principle of "shared but
differentiated
responsibilities,"
agreed under the
Convention, is one
position shared by the
government officials
Tierramérica consulted
in the region.
It is in this context
that Brazil refuses to
set goals for reducing
its greenhouse gas
emissions, despite
pressure from
environmentalists and
experts in that country,
which is among the five
leading emitters of
climate-changing gases
due to deforestation in
the vast Amazon region.
Under an initiative from
an environmentalist
lawmaker, a bill is
going through Brazil's
Parliament that would
obligate a reduction, by
2012, of greenhouse gas
emissions to four
percent less than they
were in 1990. That
target is just a bit
less than the 5.2
percent established by
the Kyoto Protocol for
industrialised
countries.
"Brazil should set some
goals, but voluntary
ones," according to José
Marengo, meteorologist
at the National
Institute of Space
Research and member of
the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC), which involves
thousands of scientists
from around the globe.
The dramatic reports
released by the IPCC
since February --
highlighting the
tragedies the world will
suffer if strong
measures are not adopted
to reduce emissions --
awakened hopes that the
Bali conference will
firm up a plan that will
lead to a better future
for humanity.
But the expectations are
"out of proportion",
because there will be no
progress without the
participation of the
United States in the
Kyoto Protocol, said
Raúl Estrada Oyuela, who
recently left the
Argentine Foreign
Ministry's environmental
affairs department, but
will be in Bali as a
member of the Protocol's
Compliance Committee,
whose editorial team he
headed 10 years ago.
The Kyoto Protocol is
the only international
treaty that sets
requirements for
reducing carbon
emissions, which come
primarily from burning
fossil fuels,
deforestation and
livestock.
The United States, under
President George W.
Bush, rejected the
commitments called for
by the Protocol --
signed in 1997 and in
force only since 2005 --
with the argument that
it would hurt the
domestic economy and,
until recently, casting
doubt over whether human
activity was the cause
of climate change.
Furthermore, COP13 will
not take up
"substantive" matters
because it is focused on
defining the process,
agenda and timeline of
the negotiations to take
place over the next two
years for a "second
phase of Kyoto,"
according to Brazil's
Miguez.
He rejects the
expression "post-Kyoto",
because, he says, it is
not a matter of a new
process, but rather a
continuation under
already-agreed
principles. The
industrialised world
should have to comply
with new, obligatory
goals, "with the
developing countries
helping through CDMs,"
Miguez said.
Brazil, however, is
trying to show its
progress, such as
cutting the pace of
Amazon deforestation in
half in the past three
years, and developing an
energy matrix that is
increasingly based on
renewable sources, such
as hydroelectric dams
and crop-based fuels.
Its proposals focus on
the creation of
mechanisms, "in the
context of the
Convention" and not of
the Protocol, that
provide public policy
incentives to reduce
emissions, such as
fighting deforestation
and developing bioenergy,
and a voluntary fund to
reward countries that
halt the loss of
forests.
Despite the negative
attitudes of the United
States and other
countries, including
Japan, Australia and
Canada, which want to
replace Kyoto with a
different treaty, Miguez
is optimistic about
defining a negotiating
process before 2009.
Failure would leave the
world adrift for a
period that could prove
fatal, considering that
it was 13 years after
the 1992 signing of the
Climate Change
Convention before the
Kyoto Protocol took
effect.
Argentina's Estrada
Oyuela adds some hope
because China and India,
which have become major
emitters of greenhouse
gases due to their rapid
economic growth and
enormous populations,
"are a little more
receptive to making
changes" in favour of
stabilising the climate.
Without Brazil, China
and India, "no effort
will be effective,"
according to Suzana
Kahn, another Brazilian
member of the IPCC,
expert in energy and
transportation.
Because of their
environmental weight,
"they must play an
active role in the
international
negotiations," said
Kahn, who, as head of
climate and carbon
market issues for the
Rio de Janeiro state
government, coordinated
a pioneering plan for
mitigating and adapting
to climate change, which
will be presented in
Bali.
If Brazil does not
assume some commitments,
it will undermine its
leadership in the
international climate
negotiations, according
to environmentalists
like Fabio Feldman, who
led the Brazilian
Climate Change Forum and
served as environment
secretary for the state
of Sao Paulo.
It is argued that Brazil
could meet goals simply
by enforcing one of its
environmental policies:
reducing deforestation,
responsible for 75
percent of the country's
carbon emissions.
But obligations for
developing countries
will only be acceptable
once the wealthy nations
comply with theirs, with
a deadline set in Kyoto
for 2012, and agree to
new ones that are "much
more significant in
reduction of their
emissions in the new
regime to be
negotiated," concludes
Cuban expert Rivera.
(*With reporting by
Marcela Valente in
Buenos Aires, Patricia
Grogg in Havana, and
Milagros Salazar in
Lima. Originally
published by Latin
American newspapers that
are part of the
Tierramérica network.
Tierramérica is a
specialised news service
produced by IPS with the
backing of the United
Nations Development
Programme and the United
Nations Environment
Programme.)
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