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CLIMATE CHANGE: Emerging G5 Take Counter-Proposal to G8
By Ravi Kanth Devarakonda
HEILIGENDAMM, Germany, Jun 7 (IPS) - A coalition of the major developing countries - China, India, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico - has a plan to fight climate change that will be presented here Friday as an alternative to the "watered-down" approach announced Thursday by the Group of Eight industrialised countries.
The developing world's "G5" will reportedly call for differentiated burden-sharing to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, and ask for unimpeded access to fuel-efficient technologies without onerous intellectual property requirements, in order to help them curb emissions without undermining development.
As a counter to Washington's proposal, which demands that Asian giants India and China undertake substantial commitments to reduce greenhouse gases on par with the United States, the five are proposing a "developmental" agenda in addressing climate change, sources said.
The G5 leaders who met in Berlin on Thursday were putting final touches on a declaration that calls on the rich countries to help the developing world in five areas: greater cooperation in biofuels; trade; flexibility in intellectual property rights so that they may secure access to the latest fuel-efficient technologies; cooperative research and development arrangements; and assistance to reduce global poverty.
Earlier, the G8 meeting at the Baltic seaside resort of Heiligendamm reached what analysts called a watered-down agreement on climate change that merely says "global greenhouse gas emissions must stop rising, followed by substantial global emission reductions."
Despite opposition from U.S. President George W. Bush to a 50-percent cut in emissions by 2050, the G8 leaders reached some tentative understanding on this issue and agreed to conduct future negotiations at the United Nations but not at a parallel 15-member platform as Bush had sought.
Though the G8 leaders - from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States - agreed to take "strong and early action", there is no concrete plan yet.
At the insistence of Germany, the G8 agreed that a final pact to cut greenhouse gases must be reached by 2009. German Chancellor Angela Merkel described the understanding reached here as a "major success" on the grounds that it allows a clear multilateral process to arrive at a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions, whose limited ability to address climate change has been likened to the ineffectual League of Nations.
Under the Kyoto Protocol, industrialised countries are required to reduce emissions of six main greenhouse gases by about 5.2 percent by 2012 on the basis of their 1990 levels, while developing countries were exempted from commitments
In the face of sustained pressure from the United States and the rest of the G8 partners, the focus on reducing emissions is being increasingly shifted to developing countries, particularly China and India.
Recently, the foreign ministers of the European Union and Asia agreed at their biennial summit that any future arrangement would pursue "differentiated" commitments for industrialised countries and developing countries. But the United States is averse to an arrangement where it would have to undertake maximum commitments, observers say.
President Bush has repeatedly maintained that a differentiated framework would allow India and China to continue with their emissions of greenhouse gases unchecked. Some estimates by international agencies have suggested that China's overall greenhouse gas emissions would make it the world's leading emitter in two years, replacing the United States.
Outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair agrees, saying Thursday that the new agreement to cut down the heat-trapping greenhouse gases "would have to include all major polluters, including China and India."
Against this backdrop, the G5 leaders are slated to participate in an outreach meeting with the G8 leaders in Heiligendamm on Friday, where they plan to press for a developmental agenda in both climate change and global trade negotiations, sources said.
Ahead of the G8 meeting, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh issued a strong statement saying "due care must be taken not to allow growth and development prospects in the developing world to be undermined or constrained... More and not less development is the best way for developing countries to address themselves to the issue of preserving the environment and protecting the climate."
At issue is the "mitigation regime" for reducing emissions in industrialised and developing countries alike, as well as whether proper compensation would be provided through aid and technological assistance for developing countries to meet their commitments.
Currently there are about 1.1 billion people in the developing world described as "energy-poor", given their lack of access to energy in their day-to-day economic activities. While G8 countries emit more than 40 percent of the world's greenhouse gases but represent only about 13 percent of the global population, the late-starters in the development-dynamic are being asked to pay a price that would severely undermine their development prospects.
"By comparison, the world's poorest countries have barely contributed to the problem, yet they will be forced to pay the highest price if the G8 fails to reduce emissions and refuses to pay its climate debt," Neil Watkins of Jubilee USA, a pressure group, said in a statement.
Climate change is a public good like public health, said a developing country analyst, arguing that the biggest battle to address climate change would centre on access to state-of-the-art fuel efficient technologies that will come with various price tags, including a stiff payment for safeguarding intellectual property rights.
The G5 leaders will argue at Heiligendamm that investments in clean technologies should be fostered through programmes of collaborative research and development between institutions in developed and developing countries, with generous arrangements to ensure that resulting intellectual property rights are available at a low cost to developing countries.
(END/2007)
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