ASIA: U.S. Offers Help against Greenhouse Effect, But With Strings

By Pratap Chatterjee Reprint | | Print |

Pratap Chatterjee

BANGKOK, Feb 4 1995 (IPS) - The United States has offered private U.S. expertise and money to help Asian countries cut down their greenhouse gas emissions, but governments and green groups in the region say the offer has strings attached.

At a two-day meeting here over the weekend, U.S. energy and environment officials discussed with representatives from seven Asian countries a variety of ways to either reduce the discharge of gases that cause global warming or absorb excess emissions.

In return for helping cut global emissions, the U.S. officials want to get credit for the amount of reductions made, to offset the huge volume of such gases emitted by the United States.

The United States released 1.4 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide in 1992, almost a quarter of the entire planet’s output, making it the single largest emitter of such gases.

Under the climate change convention, which it signed together with 154 other countries at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the United States is expected to slash its emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2000.

In Bangkok, the U.S. officials said Asia could cut its emissions through energy efficiency and switching to cleaner energy forms such as solar and wind power. To absorb excess gases, they proposed methods ranging from reforestation to low-impact logging methods.

“This is an attractive opportunity to maximise reductions and contribute to global development objectives. Emissions from the developing and transitional countries are projected to exceed those of the developed world in the next few years,” said Richard Bradley, head of the Office of Global Environment at the U.S. Department of Energy.

For the United States there is another attractive benefit. In two months’ time, officials of countries that have ratified the climate change treaty will meet for the first time in Berlin, and the United States wants to present this as part of its efforts to stop global warming.

To get some results by then, U.S. environment officials have held one such presentation in Nairobi, Kenya, to persuade African countries to help them. In March they will make presentations in Prague, in the Czech republic, and in Santiago, Chile.

But not all the officials flown here at U.S. expense from China, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and South Korea were convinced that the swap could be counted against U.S. promises to cut emissions.