New York City, April 29, 2005

Posted on SustainabiliTank.info on May 8, 2005
Please see link to the report of the meeting POWER FUTURE 2005

In 1992, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the two main documents that came
out
from the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development were
Agenda 21 for Sustainable Development, and the UN Framework Convention
on
Climate Change. At the third meeting of the Conference of the Parties
of the
UNFCCC, in Kyoto, Japan, was born the Kyoto Protocol to the UNFCCC -
which
went into effect on February 16, 2005 after ratification by the great
majority of large nations - with two important exceptions - the United
States and Australia. Ironically, it was the United States, under the
Clinton/Gore presidency, that pushed in Kyoto for the inclusion of
business
interests in the implementation of the KP of the UNFCCC - via
mechanisms
that created a market for CO2 emission credits to enhance interest in
decreasing the reliance on fossil fuels. It was the perceived need to
decrease the dependence on such fuels that created the UNFCCC and was
realized, under the environment aspect of the sustainable development
concept.

On the other hand, scientists are telling us that the amount of oil to
be
found in the world is decreasing steadily and everyone also realizes
that we
must change the reliance on oil for reasons of the increasing cost of
oil.
Further, since the September 11, 2001 atrocity committed by people
originating from countries with the main oil reserves, there is also a
political call in the main industrialized countries for reduction of
imports. These “new” factors give now further strength to the trading
mechanisms that were established by the Kyoto Protocol. Under these
mechanisms, the introduction of technologies that help us decrease the
need
for energy (energy conservation methods) or the substitution of
non-CO2-emitting technologies, such as - wind, solar, geothermal,
hydro-power, ocean-wave, biomass - even if achieved in a different part
of
the world - still should be viewed as improving local conditions
because the
basic problem is global. Thus, a major CO2-emiter in Europe can
satisfy the
required-by-law improvement of his performance by subsidizing a clean
energy
project in a developing country. He gets credit for this by buying the
CO2
credits created in that country, this becomes thus also a way of
funding,
and also a tool, for sustainable development. Hence, building a
windmill to
answer the energy needs of Ceara, rather then an oil or coal based
power
plant there, answers the global need for not increasing CO2 emissions,
gets
funding from a European company that has difficulty in answering to
local
laws in Europe.

The US and Australia are not part of this, but States within the US
federation, or within the Australian Commonwealth, like California and
Queensland, are initiating themselves such programs, and commodity
exchanges
in these countries are intent on establishing also carbon credit
trading
markets. This may eventually bring in the US and Australia, in some
form,
for the period starting 2012, obviously, major polluters among the
developing countries, such as China and India, will also have to become
responsible for their emissions in this second round - when the present
KP
time ends and another round must be started.