By Paul Weinberg
TORONTO, Jun 20 1998 (IPS)

Despite a plea from the U.S. delegation for tough action on pollution and global warming, environment ministers of 18 Pacific Rim countries have been unable to produce a specific plan beyond more studies and consultations.

At last week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APECforum here, the U.S. assistant secretary of state Eileen Claussen stressed the need for “binding tares” in the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions from cars and industry, the source of greenhouse gases that are believed to be the cause of global warming. APEC economies contributed nearly half of the global emissions, she said.

APEC discussions regarding environmental protection had achieved “some useful blueprints for moving forward in specific areas,” Claussen said. More was required, however, “to reinvigorate the negotiations and steer them in a direction that gives us some chance of success. Many people have real doubts about whether APEC can evolve into a credible force for environmental protection.,” Claussen said.

The U.S. delegate was alluding to the failure of national governments, including those in APEC, to meet goals in cuts in carbon emissions set out in the 1992 Rio de Janerio environmental summit.

By the end of last week’s APEC gathering, Claussen sounded more optimis tic, although no concrete action was announced. “We have gone a long way toward making progress in this region on some key environmental issues, and we also had some very frank discussions on broader issues at some of the private ministerial meetings,” she said.

With six months to go before the December meeting of national signatories to the Kyoto international convention on clmate change, the United States was turning up the heat on newly industrialised cuntries within APEC “to take on some responsibility” on global warming, according to Doug Russell, former Canadian representative in global climate change negotiations.

“The Americans are very strong on the notion of a legally binding cap (on carbon emissions by the major industrial countries),” Russell said. He added that the U.S. probably would not announce a target percentage until the Kyoto meeting.

The European Union couyntries already have stated willingness to accept at least a ten per cent cut in the 1990 levels of carbon dioxide emissions. Canada, meanwhile, has not yet taken a position on any reduction strategy.

At the Toronto gathering, a forerunner to the APEC Summit in Vancouver in November, delegates announced their commitment to a cleaner marine and ocean environment through performance measures and goals “in collaboration with the private sector,” as well as a less polluting industrial sector.

They also promised to double the number of cities from the the present 170 involved in APEC’s Local Agenda process of public consultation, the goal of which is to create an action plan for an improvement in the quality of life in the urban areas which are expected to expand by 20 per cent in the Pacific Rim between now and the year 2015.

But environmentalists and other activists questioned whether any substantal environmental protection would result.

There was no regulatory framework for enforcement being proposed in these discussions, said Maude Barlow, Chairwoman of the Council of Canadians – a non-governmental organization (NGO). beither was there a process where complaints could be launched by citizens or groups against APEC governments not fulfilling their obligations.

Barlow declared that the largest producers of export goods – small-to-medium sized business – were the least efficient environmentally, and therefore a source of major pollution. = 06152027 ORP104

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