Advanced Countries Yet To Compensate Forest-Protecting Nations

Bernama 15 Jul 09;

JAKARTA, July 15 (Bernama) -- Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar said industrialised countries had yet to honour their promise to compensate developing countries that were protecting their forests, such as Indonesia, Antara news agency reported.

"The compensation is provided for in the Bali Road Map agreement produced at the international conference on climate change in Bali in December 2007," he said.

He said political conditions in the advanced industrialised countries were already stable but those countries still would not meet the promise they had made despite several calls.

At an evironment ministers' meeting in Greenland held concurrently with the G-8 Summit in L'Aquila, Italy, on July 9-10, Rachmat had also voiced the concern.

He said it was still difficult to reduce gas emissions because until now developed countries still refused to give their assistance.

The minister's fourth deputy, Masneliarti, said the environment ministers' meeting that she also attended discussed efforts to reduce emissions by up to 80 percent by 2050.

She said referring to global concensus reduction of gas emissions by 50 percent by 2050 with the developed countries contributing 80 percent reduction was ideal and urgent.

In the meeting she said the developed countries had asked developing nations to make mid-term targets because long-term targets could not be assured as regeneration had taken place by the time.

She said during the meeting no agreement was reached with regard to the amount of aid industrialised countries would give to developing nations to reduce gas emissions. It had only produced mid-term target of reduction by 20 to 40 percent by 2020, she said.

Rachmat said at the G-8 Summit US President Barack Obama said if the developed and developing countries could not make an agreement, the U.S. as an industrialised country, would pay tax on its industrial products exported to developing countries.

-- BERNAMA