10 September 2007The Sydney Morning HeraldMarian Wilkinson
THE Prime Minister, John Howard, compromised on his Sydney climate change declaration to accommodate the tough stance of the Chinese President, Hu Jintao, supporting the United Nations and the Kyoto Protocol. The protocol includes binding targets for developed countries to cut emissions.
At the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum leaders' meeting on Saturday, shortly before the release of the declaration, Mr Hu bluntly told Mr Howard that the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change "and its Kyoto Protocol" was the legal basis for any international co-operation on climate change.
He also told Mr Howard the framework and the Kyoto Protocol were "the most authoritative, universal and comprehensive international framework" for tackling climate change.
"Developed countries should face their historical responsibility and their high per-capita emissions," Mr Hu insisted, saying the countries should "strictly abide by their emission reduction targets set forth in the Kyoto Protocol". His remarks were circulated by Chinese officials after the APEC leaders' meeting and before the final Sydney declaration was released.
Differences between Mr Howard and Mr Hu emerged publicly yesterday, at the end of the APEC leaders' meeting, with Mr Howard attacking the Kyoto Protocol as "never having the capacity to deliver" on climate change and saying it was time for it to be left behind.
Mr Howard wants the Sydney Declaration on Climate Change to move global climate change negotiations beyond the Kyoto Protocol but the compromise final declaration leaves open the question of how this will happen.
Despite this, Mr Howard yesterday hailed the Sydney declaration as "highly significant" because both China and the US had agreed to discuss a "long-term aspirational goal" to cut global greenhouse gases. He said this would help to lead a new agreement on climate change for 2012 that could bring the big emitting nations together.
And in a significant achievement for Mr Howard and Mr Bush, the declaration does not specifically mention the Kyoto Protocol or its provision for binding targets for developed countries.
But the agreement falls short of the aim of Mr Howard and Mr Bush to ditch the protocol altogether and move to a "post-Kyoto framework". Mr Howard said yesterday the negotiations were very difficult. "No one meeting, no one agreement, is going to fix this issue."
Mr Bush will host a new round of talks in Washington this month before UN talks on the post-2012 agreement begin in Bali in December.
Pressure from China and other Asian countries resulted in the final declaration being significantly different from the draft circulated to APEC officials last week by Australia. It now includes language reflecting the Kyoto Protocol, insisted on by China, and waters down the agreement to achieving "a common understanding" on a long-term aspirational goal to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions that can "pave the way" for a post-2012 climate arrangement.
While Mr Howard yesterday hailed the Sydney declaration as a "genuine commitment" by APEC leaders to move beyond the Kyoto Protocol, the final draft drops references to a new "post-Kyoto framework", a clause pushed by Australia.
Instead, the less formal words "post-2012 arrangement" are used in the declaration. The new language avoids disagreement between China and the US over the fraught issue of whether the next round of UN climate talks will ditch the framework set up by the Kyoto Protocol.
Labor's spokesman on the environment, Peter Garrett, said the final Sydney declaration was "a thorough rebuttal" of the position Mr Howard set out before APEC and it affirmed the desire of countries to negotiate climate change inside the UN framework.
"Mr Howard has tried to spin the declaration, worthy as it is, into something greater than it was," he said.
Pressure from China and other Asian countries resulted in the final declaration being significantly different from the draft circulated to APEC officials last week by Australia. It now includes language reflecting the Kyoto Protocol, insisted on by China, and waters down the agreement to achieving "a common understanding" on a long-term aspirational goal to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions that can "pave the way" for a post-2012 climate arrangement.
While Mr Howard yesterday hailed the Sydney declaration as a "genuine commitment" by APEC leaders to move beyond the Kyoto Protocol, the final draft drops references to a new "post-Kyoto framework", a clause pushed by Australia.
Instead, the less formal words "post-2012 arrangement" are used in the declaration. The new language avoids disagreement between China and the US over the fraught issue of whether the next round of UN climate talks will ditch the framework set up by the Kyoto Protocol.
Labor's spokesman on the environment, Peter Garrett, said the final Sydney declaration was "a thorough rebuttal" of the position Mr Howard set out before APEC and it affirmed the desire of countries to negotiate climate change inside the UN framework.
"Mr Howard has tried to spin the declaration, worthy as it is, into something greater than it was," he said.
