UN climate meet in India divided over Kyoto pact

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INDIA : October 29, 2002

NEW DELHI - The European Union slammed a draft declaration at a U.N. climate convention in the Indian capital yesterday for not mentioning the Kyoto accord on reducing global warming.

"The European Union thinks the declaration is not strong enough. It should include the Kyoto Protocol," conference spokesman Michael Williams said. Delegates from 185 countries are attending the conference, likely to be the last major climate meeting before the protocol is expected to take effect.

The draft drawn up after the first five days of discussions at the 10-day meeting said "climate change and its adverse effects should be considered within the framework of sustainable development through enhanced international cooperation".

But the statement made no mention of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse emissions blamed for global warming which is expected to come into force early next year.

The Kyoto pact aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions from the developed world by 2012 to 5.2 percent below 1990 levels.

But the United States, the world’s biggest air polluter, has refused to ratify the pact, saying it would hurt its economy.

Indian Environment Minister T.R. Baalu, also president of the conference, said the pact had not been dropped from the agenda but delegates sought to evolve a consensus on it during talks.

"This conference is seeking a consensus to get the Kyoto Protocol ratified," Baalu told reporters.

"I’ll have negotiations and consultations and make whatever effort to make sure the protocol is ratified," he said.

To come into force, the protocol must be ratified by enough industrialised countries to account for at least 55 percent of the developed world’s 1990 carbon emissions.

Without the United States, a complex weighting system means the pact would be dead without Russia.

But Moscow has backed the treaty and says it may ratify it this year, virtually ensuring its implementation.