Reuters 3 Nov 11;
(Reuters) - A group of island states most vulnerable to global warming have lashed out against rich nations for wanting to delay a new international climate pact until years after the Kyoto Protocol on curbing carbon emissions expires in 2012.
The 42-member Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) said countries such as Japan and Russia were "reckless and irresponsible" for promoting a delay in the adoption of a new international agreement until 2018 or 2020, just weeks before the start of a United Nations climate summit in Durban, South Africa.
"If we allow this to happen, global warming problems are going to worsen and the impact on a country like Grenada will be devastating," Joseph Gilbert, Grenada's environment minister and current chair of AOSIS, said in a statement.
"We therefore cannot continue to delay making decisions, to 2018 or 2020, as there will not be sufficient time for countries to take action," he said.
If world governments fail to agree a pact that sets tough climate targets then small island countries in the Caribbean, the Pacific, Africa and elsewhere will be further exposed to severe drought, rising sea levels and stronger hurricanes as a result of climate change, Gilbert said.
AOSIS said a large number of developed and developing countries also want a climate deal done before the end of 2012 and are calling for that timetable to be agreed at the climate summit in Durban.
Representatives from more than 190 nations will meet in the South African city from November 28-December 9 to resume climate talks, but a binding pact to reduce emissions looks unlikely to be delivered and may take several years due to deep divisions between rich and poor nations. [nL5E7LE2PU]
KYOTO DIVISIONS
The 1997 Kyoto Protocol covers only emissions from rich nations that produce less than a third of mankind's carbon pollution and its first phase is due to expire end-2012. Poorer nations want it extended, while many rich countries say a broader pact is needed to include all big polluters. [nL3E7L30B0]
Russia, Japan, Canada and others have said they will not sign up to a second commitment period unless it includes all major emitters.
Two years ago, industrialized nations set a 2 degree Celsius warming as the maximum limit to avoid dangerous climate changes including more floods, droughts and rising seas. Some experts say a 1.5 degree limit would be safer.
Scientists have said carbon emissions need to be cut by 80 to 95 percent by 2050 to keep warming levels reasonably safe.
This is well above the collective commitment by developed countries for a 5.2 percent reduction from 1990 levels under the first phase of Kyoto, and well above developed country targets currently on the table.
The AOSIS chair urged developed countries not to renege on their legal commitment and "historical responsibility" to commit to new targets under the Kyoto pact after 2012.
Otherwise, he said: "What this will do is ruin the Kyoto Protocol, wreck the international carbon market, and undermine the credibility of the legally-binding international climate regime that has taken the world more than 20 years to build."
Benchmark U.N.-issued carbon credits traded at an all-time low of 6.35 euros ($8.76) earlier on Thursday, before recovering somewhat. ($1 = 0.725 Euros)
(Reporting By Jeff Coelho)
Island states slam slow pace of climate talks
Marlowe Hood AFP Yahoo News 4 Nov 11;
Island states facing rising seas driven by global warming slammed on Thursday suggestions by some rich nations that a comprehensive climate deal can wait until 2018 or later.
Such proposals are "both environmentally reckless and politically irresponsible," Joseph Gilbert, Grenada's environment minister, said on behalf of the 42-nation Association of Small Island States (AOSIS).
"If we allow this to happen, global warming problems are going to worsen and the impact on a country like Grenada will be devastating," he said in a statement.
Australia and Norway have proposed setting a 2015 deadline for a climate deal that would lock in commitments from all major carbon-emitting nations.
But negotiators from Japan and Russia have said such a deadline is unrealistic, with Moscow suggesting it could be pushed out as far as 2018 or 2020, AOSIS said in a statement.
Russia's top climate official, Oleg Pluzhnikov, told Interfax news agency earlier this week that there was a strong probability "that no new agreement will be adopted in the four or five years after the expiry of the Kyoto Protocol."
Kyoto's current roster of pledges runs out at the end of 2012.
Gilbert's comments come ahead of a new round of high-level UN negotiations in Durban, South Africa, from November 28 to December 9.
Some progress has been made on "building block" issues such as finance and technology since the near-collapse in 2009 of climate talks in Copenhagen.
But sharing out cuts in the greenhouse gas emissions that stoke warming remains blocked.
"The world's climate scientists have told us that global emissions need to peak well before 2020" to keep global temperatures from rising more than the 2.0 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, widely seen as a threshold for dangerous warming, Gilbert said.
"We cannot continue to delay making the decisions, to 2018 or 2020, as there will not be sufficient time for countries to take action."
The window of opportunity for staying under the 2.0 C (3.6 F) cap is shrinking rapidly, scientists say.
Many developing nations in the Caribbean, the Pacific, Asia and Africa have already experienced more frequent droughts, stronger hurricanes and rising seas, with even more severe climate impacts on the horizon, according to the final draft of a major scientific UN report to be released later this month.
The Australia-Norway proposal, submitted in September, calls for a scaling up of national carbon-cutting targets and the step-by-step construction of an international system for verification.
This could be done as an extension of the Kyoto Protocol, or a new treaty that incorporates some of its attributes, it said.
The end-point objective would be "a new, legally-binding Protocol for all Parties" -- including developed and developing countries -- in 2015.
The Kyoto Protocol currently only covers some three dozen rich nations that account for about 30 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
China, the world's top carbon emitter, was excluded at the outset as a developing nation, and the United States -- the No. 2 global polluter -- opted out after playing a major role in crafting the treaty.
"This is a live issue that is being discussed," Alden Meyer, top climate policy analyst at the Washington-based Union of Concerned Scientists, said of the proposal.
"But it is very political. Different countries have opposing positions, which makes getting to a 'yes' very hard on this."
