Asia-Pacific Combats Climate Change

A reduction of greenhouse gas emissions has to be part of an international strategy against global warming, the Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said on Tuesday in the run-up to the APEC summit, taking place in Sydney from 7 to 9 September.

Australia's proposal is backed by the United States. Whereas China and other APEC members are sceptical. The US President George W. Bush arrived in Sydney for the summit on Tuesday afternoon.

The Australian Prime Minister John Howard has included climate protection in the summit's agenda, although the Asia-Pacific forum usually focuses on economic and trade issues. There is wide consensus that the APEC summit should take on climatic problems, said Howard.

An alternative Kyoto Protocol?

Australia wants to start its own climate protection initiative with its neighbouring countries in the Pacific. It is hoped that an agreement will be signed at the summit that will eventually supersede the contentious Kyoto Protocol on C02 emission reductions.

Apart from the USA, Australia is the only industrial nation which has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol. Prime Minister John Howard thinks that the compulsory goals for reducing C02 emissions are unfeasible.

He says that the Kyoto model is too Euro-centric and based on rules which cannot be applied to the Asia-Pacific region. He insists it is of utmost importance that developing countries are able to continue their economic progress.

"From Australia’s perspective -- and I can report encouraging reactions from APEC members -- these principles include comprehensiveness, all economies need to contribute in ways that are equitable and effective, and flexibility and respect for national circumstance", Howard said earlier this week.

"Different countries have different attributes and capacities. What works for Australia might not necessarily work for Thailand or Korea."

"Voluntary targets = no targets"

Australia suggests that after the planned APEC programme, the individual countries should specify their own goals for climate protection and observe them of their own accord.

But environmental activists strongly disagree and think that Australia would do better to sign the Kyoto Protocol.

"Voluntary targets are basically the same as no targets," says Ben Pearson, an engineering expert from Greenpeace Australia. "They are impossible to enforce. If industry and others don’t meet them they can simply ignore them. We don’t want to see documents like this which are a distraction, which are set only aspirational targets. We want real action and that is the Kyoto Protocol."

Climate change and APEC

Per capita, Australia is the country with the highest rate of gas emissions, which are responsible for climate change. However, other big polluters such as China, Russia or the USA will also be present at the APEC summit.

The leader of the main Australian opposition Kevin Rudd has called on the government to use the APEC summit as a chance to really do something for climate protection.

"If APEC can’t get its act together on one of the biggest challenges that the world faces today, that is climate change, then APEC will have no effective future. And the Sydney APEC summit should play a key role in bringing together the economies of the Asia-Pacific to drive practical and effective global action that will solve the problem, not merely entrench more excuses for not solving the problem."