Monday, May 26, 2008

G8 COUNTDOWN
G8 meet sidesteps midterm gas cuts – Industrialized, developing nations can’t agree on binding targets. They Are Wasting Our Time.

{ They were supposed to talk about the three major issues: biodiversity, climate change and 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle). It was announced beforehand that these are on the agenda of the three-day conference. }

By ERIC JOHNSTON
Staff writer
KOBE — Environment ministers from the Group of Eight countries meeting Sunday in Kobe apparently sidestepped the major issue of setting midterm greenhouse-gas reduction targets for 2020 due to a divide between developing and industrialized countries over specific targets.

Scientists believe 2020 is a key deadline in avoiding a potentially disastrous rise in world temperatures.
“On a midterm target (for emissions), this is the most difficult issue. We can’t say we went much further than restating the positions of many countries so far,” said Jos Delbeke, deputy director general for environment of the European Commission.

On the second day of the three-day meet, the G8 environment chiefs and representatives from 10 major emitters outside the G8 framework, including China, India and Brazil, remained unable to bridge their differences over binding midterm targets.

Developing countries, many of which oppose a new environmental treaty that would commit them to specific reduction goals, called on developed countries to first take the lead and cut their own emissions by a substantial margin.

South Africa called on developed countries to follow the Fourth Assessment Report released last year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which calls for global reductions of between 25 percent and 40 percent by 2020. India and Brazil also stressed the importance of commitments by developed countries.

U.S. delegates, meanwhile, said if any midterm goal is set, it must be realistic.

Given the divide, participants in Kobe instead agreed that long-term goals for 2050 should be “aspirational, nonbinding and ambitious.”

Japanese officials apparently tried to put an emphasis on what was agreed, rather than what was not, saying there was understanding among the delegates that it was important to set long-term goals, and to reduce emissions by half by 2050 as Japan has proposed.

The agreement, which contrasts sharply with a concrete and substantial outcome demanded by environmental NGOs from around the world, will be reflected in a final declaration to be released Monday. In other words, the environment chiefs effectively shelved key decisions on midterm targets until the G8 leaders summit in Toyako, Hokkaido, in July.

Even Japan’s argument for the sectoral approach, where industries commit to reducing emissions by a certain amount, appeared somewhat watered down.

Environment Minister Ichiro Kamoshita said the sectoral approach to cutting greenhouse gases is just one method that can be used when countries set their overall reduction goals.

“The sectoral approach is not a specific target for each sector. It is simply one barometer of measurement to be used when a country calculates its overall reduction target,” Kamoshita said.

His statement was made after some at the conference expressed concern and confusion over what Japan means by the sectoral approach.

Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, said in an interview Saturday evening with The Japan Times that it was unclear, exactly, what Tokyo has in mind with the approach.

At a news conference in the evening, de Boer said Japan had shown it was clear the sectoral approach was not a substitute for national targets.

“What (Kamoshita) clearly indicated today was that Japan is firmly committed to national targets. Japan sees sectoral analysis as a useful way of comparing the different countries,” de Boer said.

Japan is hoping to secure the agreement of the other G-8 environment ministers for a long-term goal on greenhouse gas emissions. The Cool Earth Initiative, announced by Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, aims to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

At Sunday morning’s session, Kamoshita sought the support from the other environment ministers for Fukuda’s more detailed followup plan, to be unveiled at the G-8 leaders summit in Hokkaido in July, that is expected to set even higher long-term emissions targets for developed countries.

Japan is currently discussing a proposal that would commit developed countries to reducing their emissions between 60 percent and 80 percent by 2050 compared with 1990 levels.

But as host of this year’s G-8, Japan is also facing pressure at the Kobe meeting to take the lead in setting midterm reduction targets, which are far more controversial among both G-8 member countries and developing nations.

Kamoshita told delegates Sunday that when the G-8 leaders meet in Toyako, they should agree to push for emission reductions from all countries over the next 10 to 20 years.

“Developed countries should take the lead in emissions reductions, and identify their fair and equitable quantified national targets so that global greenhouse gas emissions would peak within the next 10 to 20 years,” he said.

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Eat less beef and help the planet, G8 is told

By ERIC JOHNSTON
Staff writer, The Japan Times on Lline

KOBE — Experts gathering for the Group of Eight environment ministers meeting in the city known for its high-quality beef have a suggestion on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions: Eat less beef.

“One way to combat climate change is reducing meat consumption,” said Ragendra Pachauri of the International Panel on Climate Change at a symposium Saturday, the opening day of the three-day climate meeting in Kobe.

A 2006 report by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization made clear the environmental costs of excessive beef consumption. Since then, both the U.N. and environmental nongovernmental organizations, including, not surprisingly, vegetarian groups, have touted the environmental as well as the health benefits of avoiding filet mignon and hamburgers.

According to the U.N. report, the livestock sector internationally generates 18 percent more greenhouse gas emissions, as measured in carbon dioxide equivalent, than the transport sector.

Furthermore, the livestock sector also damages the ecosystem, as it is a major contributor to land and water degradation. And the problem is expected to get worse. The U.N. noted that global meat production is projected to more than double from 229 million tons in 1999 to 465 million tons by 2050.

The livestock sector now uses 30 percent of the Earth’s land surface. Most of the use consists of permanent pastures. But 33 percent of the global arable land is now used to produce livestock feed, the report said. One result is deforestation, as old-growth forests that absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide are cleared to create new grazing areas.

In Latin America, some 70 percent of forests in the Amazon region have been turned over to grazing, the U.N. said.

The livestock sector accounts for 9 percent of carbon dioxide deriving from human-related activities and 65 percent of human-related nitrous oxide, which has 296 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide. Most of this comes from manure.

The sector is also responsible for 37 percent of all human-induced methane, which is produced largely by the digestive system of ruminants, and 64 percent of all human-induced ammonia, which contributes significantly to acid rain, the report added.

While the problem of beef is not on the menu, so to speak, at the G8 environment meeting, reduction in consumption of resources is. Environmental NGOs in Kobe for the summit have emphasized the importance of international action to curb what has become a mammoth international industry that is harming the environment.

“The meat industry causes extensive damage and is linked to climate change and diversity loss. It’s clear the planet can’t sustain current levels of meat consumption and that people need to cut back,” said Jurgen Maier of the German NGO Forum on Environment and Development.

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According to Bloomberg News – the countries present at Kobe are: the G8 + Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, South Korea, South Africa, and Antigua and Barbuda.

That means we have here   G8 + 8 largest polluters + a representative of the G77 (without China) represented now by Antigua and Barbuda. It is possible that the Japan Times had in mind the representation of the EU – but this is double counting in major part. If one takes in also the EU, because of the G77 representative – that is when one gets to 10.

Further, Bloomberg writes that the World Bank said they will raise $5.5 billion with the United States, Britain, and Japan, this year, for climate change funds that will help poor nations use clean technology and tackle global warming.

The bank will decide on this at the July 2008 meeting, and will start functioning in the autumn, so it is in tandem with the G8 meeting, said the bank’s VP for Sustainable Development Ms. Katherine Sierra.

The idea is to have $5 billion for an initial clean technology fund plus a $500 milion fund for what she called “climate resilience.” In effect already last week the bank announced that 40 developed and developing countries have agreed to establish these two funds.