Kyoto Protocol not to be killed: developing nations

The fifth United Nations climate change talks are currently being held in Barcelona, Spain. The five-day meeting, which commenced Monday, is also the last UN session before the climate change conference to be held in Copenhagen next month.

Speaking on behalf of the Group of 77 developing countries and China, leader of the Sudanese delegation, Ibrahim, reaffirmed at the opening ceremony of the climate change talks Monday that the contents of the Kyoto Protocol should be adhered to and implemented as the legal basis for the emission reduction targets of developed countries beyond 2012.

The main task of Barcelona climate change talks is to go on discussing a draft negotiating text and prepare a draft agreement for the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference. As developed and developing countries are still debating heatedly on their emission reduction responsibilities and obligations, it remains doubtful whether the final session prior to the Copenhagen summit would proceed smoothly.

There are only five negotiating days left until the Copenhagen summit, Irahim reminded the participants, and an ambitious emission reduction target from industrialized countries in the second phase of Kyoto protocol should be tabled or set forth as soon as possible.

A negotiating representative from the African Group said that developed countries had to work out their quantified emission reduction targets as soon as possible and establish a viable and efficient mechanism to implement these targets. Otherwise, the African representative acknowledged, it cannot be counted as a success, even if a new agreement is reached in Copenhagen.

Meanwhile, some non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and public opinions also call on developed countries to work out a quantified cap on their greenhouse emission reduction. The world’s industrialized countries, with 20 percent of global population, produce about 80 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, while the developing nations, which emit relatively less greenhouse gas, suffer the greatest harm from climate change, noted Spanish media. So, developed countries should are more liable for the human-induced climate change and commit themselves to stricter emission reduction.

The purpose of Kyoto Protocol is precisely to cut global greenhouse emissions through concrete measures and arrangements. The first phase of the Kyoto protocol calls for emission reduction from 35 rich countries but ended in 2012. On 18 December 2007, 187 countries adopted the Bali roadmap, which charted the course for a new negotiating process that will be concluded by 2009 and will lead to a successor to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. In 2008, UN climate change talks moved slowly, despite four summit meetings being held up to September in the year. Four more climate change negotiations were conducted in 2009 to pave the way for Copenhagen Summit scheduled for December 2009.

Earlier, the UN sponsored, two-week Bangkok climate changes talks held in late September 2009 posed an opportunity to learn more about climate change issues, but the talks failed in two crucial areas, namely, to work out the targets of limiting greenhouse gas emissions (such as from vans) and sharing the climate change funds. On the one hand, developed countries made no commitment to binding emission reduction in a mid-term approach for climate regime beyond 2012. On the other hand, they failed to work out plans to provide special climate change fund in support of developing nations to adapt to climate change.

At present, Barcelona climate change talks is the final leg or stop before December's Copenhagen summit, and all relevant parties have been working hard to take on quantified commitment in a Copenhagen agreement. Nevertheless, there are still apparent disparities between developed and developing countries concerning their emission reduction responsibilities and obligations; many developed countries want to shirk off their responsibilities on the emission reduction issue, whereas developing nations insist that all countries, developed and developing, should follow the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities", and that developed countries ought to take up the main responsibility. So setting the emission reduction goal for all nations would be the focus of the UN climate change talks.

By People's Daily Online and contributed by Zhang Jinjiang, PD resident reporter in Spain