Trade ministers seek to aid climate talks

Adhityani Arga, Reuters 8 Dec 07;

JIMBARAN, Indonesia (Reuters) - Trade ministers opened a new front in combating global warming on the fringe of U.N. climate talks on Saturday despite splits over import barriers to clean energy technologies.

About a dozen trade ministers, including from the United States, Australia, Brazil and Portugal, which holds the European Union presidency, started two days of meetings in Bali to discuss whether more trade will harm or help the environment.

"The meeting...emphasizes the point that it's not just the environmental imperative we are dealing with, but the economic opportunities that come from solving climate change," Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean said.

"Climate change solutions open up important opportunities for jobs and trade," he told reporters.

"The intention is to start a dialogue. This is the first time that trade ministers are meeting to discuss these (climate) issues," Indonesian Trade Minister Mari Pangestu said.

The meeting, on the fringe of 190-nation climate talks involving about 10,000 delegates in a nearby resort on the Indonesian island, is the first time that annual U.N. climate talks have widened from environment ministers.

In a sign of mounting worries about the economic impacts of more droughts, floods, and rising seas, a group of finance minister will also meet in Bali on Monday and Tuesday.

The trade talks began around midday (0400 GMT), to discuss how trade policies can promote economic growth and shield the environment after U.N. reports this year warning of ever more droughts, heatwaves, disruptions to farming and rising seas.

On November 30, the United States and the EU made a proposal to eliminate barriers to trade in clean energy technologies, such as wind turbines or solar panels, as part of the long-running Doha round of world trade talks.

PROTECTIONISM

But India and Brazil criticized the measures as disguised protectionism to boost exports from rich nations. Brazil, a big producer of biofuels from sugar cane, noted the proposals did not include biofuels nor biofuels technologies.

Australia's Crean said the U.S.-EU proposal was encouraging if it helped eliminate trade barriers for environmental goods and services.

The December 3-14 U.N. climate change meeting in Bali is trying to launch two years of formal talks on a new pact to widen the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol to all nations beyond 2012, including more participation by the United States, China and India.

Kyoto now binds 36 developed nations to cut emissions of greenhouse gases, mainly from burning fossil fuels, by 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12 in a step to slow global warming.

At the climate talks, an alliance of 43 small island states urged much tougher action to fight climate change, saying they otherwise risked being washed off the map by rising seas and more powerful storms.

"We want to see drastic action," said Angus Friday, of Grenada and chairman of the group in Bali. He said a protective barrier for one island in the Maldives alone cost $100 million.

Saturday's trade talks were focused on the links between trade, investment and climate policies for the development of climate friendly technologies and clean energy systems.

On Sunday, World Trade Organization chief Pascal Lamy will look at "what kind of tools and instruments can be applied to maximize linkages between trade and climate policies".

A U.N. report in August projected that net annual investments of $200-$210 billion by 2030 were needed to curb emissions, in cleaner areas such as renewable energies.

(Editing by Bill Tarrant)

Nations bicker in Bali over "green" goods trade
Gerard Wynn and Adhityani Arga, Reuters 9 Dec 07;

JIMBARAN, Indonesia (Reuters) - Rich and poor differed on Sunday over how to open up trade in green goods, with Brazil fearing a major U.S.-EU proposal raised on the fringes of climate talks in Bali was a protectionist ruse.

Officials from 32 nations, including 12 trade ministers, are meeting for the first time on the sidelines of an annual U.N. climate conference, opening a new front in the global warming battle.

About 20 finance ministers will also meet on Indonesia's resort island of Bali on Monday and Tuesday.

Pakistan and Brazil voiced reservations on Sunday over a move to cut tariffs on clean technologies, such as wind power and solar panels, meant to help reduce the cost of curbing greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming.

They suspect the measure's real intention is to boost exports from rich nations. Brazil, a big producer of biofuels from sugar cane, has said the proposal did not include biofuels nor biofuels technologies.

"The protectionism is like the serpent's head. The serpent will always try put its head up," Brazil's Minister of External Relations, Celso Luiz Nunes Amorim, said in Bali.

"What are we here for? Are we here to make three things mutually supportive, development, trade and climate change, or are we here to discuss about protectionist ways to slow down the process?"

Pakistan objected to the U.S.-EU proposal because most developing nations don't have the money or know-how to build competitive green goods.

"This is obviously against us, because we have not the capacity to produce goods in the environmental friendly way," said Pakistan's Ambassador to Indonesia, Ali Baz.

About 190 countries are meeting at a luxury Indonesian beach resort in December 3-14 talks to try to launch negotiations on a broader climate change pact to succeed or replace the Kyoto Protocol from 2013. Kyoto only binds 36 industrialized countries to emissions curbs between 2008-2012.

World Trade Organization chief Pascal Lamy said developing countries, such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, were leaders in some clean technologies and would benefit from free trade in environmental goods.

CARBON TAXES

He also said trade rules could be tweaked to help curb the output of greenhouse gases, for example taking into account carbon taxes and subsidies, or minimum environmental standards.

But that would have to be under the framework of an international climate change pact, he said.

"The relationship between international trade and indeed the WTO and climate change would be best defined by a consensual, international agreement on climate change that successfully embraces all major polluters," Lamy said.

The Bali climate talks aim to find ways to include outsiders such as top carbon emitters the United States and China in the fight against rising greenhouse emissions scientists say will lead to more droughts, floods, heatwaves and rising seas.

Developing nations say rich countries need to do more to cut their own emissions, blaming Europe, the United States, Japan and other industrialized nations for much of the man-made greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to date.

On Saturday, a draft proposal at the U.N.-led talks said all nations must do more to fight climate change, and rich countries must make deep cuts in emissions to avoid the worst impacts.

The four-page draft, written by delegates from Indonesia, Australia and South Africa as an unofficial guide for delegates, said developing nations should at least brake rising emissions as part of a new pact.

In Europe, several thousand protesters demanding urgent action on global warming held street marches on Saturday.

German authorities turned off the lights for five minutes at 8 p.m. (1900 GMT) at tourist sites including Berlin's Brandenburg Gate as part of a government-backed campaign to raise awareness of environmental issues.

In London, posters carried a picture of U.S. President George W. Bush and the words "Wanted for crimes against the planet."

(Writing by David Fogarty; Editing by Jerry Norton)

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