New WRI Report Stresses Need to Bridge the Gap Between Rich and Poor Countries to Protect Climate 10/22/2002
From: Adlai Amor of the World Resources Institute, 202-729-7736; E-mail: aamor@wri.org The report is available at: http://newsroom.wri.org WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 -- A new report released today by the World Resources Institute (WRI) stresses the need to bridge and gap between rich and poor countries, and offers a menu of choices in order to protect the world's climate in the long-term. "To protect the atmosphere from dangerous climate change, the coming decade must witness the bridging of this divide between rich and poor nations," said Kevin Baumert, co-author of the report. "We offer a two-track strategy that both meets the short-term interests of governments and sets in motion processes for developing a more coherent long-term framework for climate protection." The report, "Building on the Kyoto Protocol: Options for Protecting the Climate," was released today before the start of the Conference of Parties (COP 8) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Oct. 23 to Nov. 1, in New Delhi, India. Since 1997, the debate over global climate change has focused on the Kyoto Protocol - an international treaty to control greenhouse gas emissions that trap heat in the Earth's atmosphere, resulting in climate change. With the Kyoto Protocol poised to come into force, the debate is expected to shift to include new ideas for future commitments to protect the global climate system. The report's 17 authors from 9 countries offer a way forward based on case studies and ideas emerging from Argentina, Mexico, South Africa, and Brazil and others. The authors warn, however, that the weak leadership from industrialized countries and the repudiation of the Kyoto Protocol by the United States could make these solutions inadequate. The report's menu of seven approaches to climate protection builds on the Kyoto Protocol, but also introduces using sustainable development measures to enable developing countries to contribute to climate protection. It examines setting up adjustable targets, below which countries will be out of compliance with the Climate Convention, and beyond which they can trade their emission allowances. The menu also examines a proposal from Brazil which calls for sharing emission reduction burdens based on each country's responsibility for increasing global temperatures. It also looks into the possible application of the Kyoto Protocol's clean development mechanism not only to projects but also to sectors such as transport. The authors write that a menu-based approach may be the best hope of harnessing the limited political will for climate protection. It may also enable signatories to the Climate Convention to gain experience, capacity and added confidence to support greater long-term action on climate change. "We should not be satisfied with a haphazard round of commitments by governments," said Baumert. "The dangers of climate change are too great and they fall disproportionately on the world's poor." ------ The World Resources Institute (http://www.wri.org/wri) is an environmental think tank that goes beyond research to create practical ways to protect the Earth and improve people's lives. |