A Japanese proposal that would set industry-specific emissions reductions for all economic powers threatened to undermine efforts yesterday to negotiate a sweeping climate change pact, delegates and environmentalists said.
Representatives from 163 countries were working into the evening to finish a work plan that would set the agenda for negotiations on reaching a climate change agreement by the end of next year.
The goal is to stabilize emissions of “greenhouse” gases blamed for global warming in the next 10 years to 15 years and cut them in half by 2050 to avoid the worst impacts of climate change that would imperil billions of people worldwide.
China, India and other developing countries led the opposition to Japan’s “sectoral” approach, which would set emissions reduction targets on industries across national boundaries, rather than on nations. They argued it was an attempt to shift the burden of responsibility for climate change from rich to poor nations.
“As to the sectoral approaches as suggested by the Japanese, we would have very strong reservations,” said Su Wei, a Chinese delegate who is responsible for the government’s climate change policy. “It is intended to substitute for targets and would shift the burden on developing countries, which are not very advanced in energy efficiency technology.”
An Indian delegate dismissed the Japanese proposal as a “huge protectionist scam,” while the G-77 grouping of developing countries refused to include any reference to it in the work plan.
“The point the group has made is that the sectoral approach should not be seen as the solution,” said John Ashe, an Antigua and Barbados delegate who chairs the G-77.
Japan, which is struggling to meet its greenhouse gas reduction targets under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, is campaigning to put its approach at the center of a future warming agreement to take effect when the Kyoto pact ends in 2012.
Kyoji Komachi, Japan’s top negotiator in Bangkok, said Japan was not using the proposal to force developing countries into the same emissions targets as wealthy industrialized nations.
The five-day UN-sponsored discussions were scheduled to end yesterday. Delegates disagreed, however, over how soon they should schedule in-depth talks on Japan’s plan.
Proponents, including the US, say this approach would ensure fair competition among steelmakers across national boundaries. It would also allow Japan to take advantage of its already high standards of energy efficiency.
China and environmentalists complained Japan was trying to force its idea on other delegates and could undermine efforts to persuade poor nations to do more to reduce their emissions. China, for one, has already set out energy efficiency targets for its economy.
On Thursday, Norway and the EU called for tougher global regulation of greenhouse gas emissions from ships and airplanes, saying they should be included in any new climate pact alongside pollutants from power plants and agriculture.
But Thailand and others opposed the plan, saying it could hurt their tourism-dependent economies. Some, including Australia and China, felt the issue was already being tackled by the industries’ respective associations.
? the International Civil Aviation Organization and the UN’s International Maritime Organization.
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