SUNS  4316 Wednesday 4 November 1998


ENVIRONMENT: HURRICANE MITCH SHOWS VULNERABILITY OF THE POOR

Buenos Aires, Nov 2 (IPS/Viviana Alonso ) -- The devastation Hurricane Mitch has left in its wake in Central America came as a tragic reminder to participants in a meeting here on global warming of the vulnerability of developing nations to climate change.

As Central Americans counted their dead and calculated the destruction the hurricane caused, more than 3,500 representatives of states and non-governmental organisations from 163 countries Monday started two weeks of negotiations at the Fourth Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The devastation in Central America "reminds us of poor countries' vulnerability to meteorological disasters, which are expected to become increasingly frequent," said the Conference's executive secretary, Michael Zammit Cutajar.

"In my opinion, none of the themes of this conference is more important than the transfer of technology and knowledge to developing countries," Cutajar added.

He also stressed the need for joint action.

"Climate change," he said, "is a global problem which, though stemming from the development patterns of the nations that are now industrialised, requires the participation of all countries in a joint
strategy to confront it."

Scientists the world over have warned of the consequences of global warming, caused by the burning of fossil fuels (oil, gas, coal). They say that in the next few decades, human activity could cause the worst climate change in 10,000 years.

The global temperature could increase by one to 3.5 degrees by the year 2100, leading to increasingly violent storms and hurricanes, tsunamis, droughts and floods, experts have said. Sea levels are expected to rise as a result of melting polar ice. Islands and low-lying coastal areas
could be submerged.

Argentina's Minister of Natural Resources and Sustainable Development, Mar!a Julia Alsogaray - president of the Conference of Parties - hinted that developing countries could make voluntary commitments to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
Argentina's delegation made a similar suggestion, but it was rejected by the Group of 77 (G-77), which represents 132 developing nations.

Speaking on behalf of G-77 and China, Arizal Effendi of Indonesia called for the "implementation of the objectives of the Convention" on Climate Change, which puts the responsibility for reducing the emission of harmful gases on the developed countries.

The idea of voluntary reductions by developing nations did not get very far at the Third Conference of Parties, held in December 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, which set a number of targets for the developed countries.

From 2008 to 2012, industrialised nations have to cut their emissions to 5.2 percent below the 1990 level, according to the Kyoto Protocol, which 159 countries signed at the December meeting.

"While the industrialised world is to a large extent responsible for this critical situation with regard to climate change, we are convinced that we, the developing countries, have the conditions and ethical duty to develop models that guarantee sustainable development," said Alsogaray.

One of the issues that cropped up at a press conference later on Monday, was that of working out a system allowing companies to trade credits for emissions. Such a mechanism would allow a company that considers reducing its emissions extremely costly to pay another company, in the South for example, that can achieve the same reduction at less cost.

The idea has been greeted with enthusiasm by some developed countries.

"Whenever a free market mechanism is designed, it gives rise to euphoria," said Alsogaray, adding that "effective controls are necessary on those who buy and those who sell." A key aspect, she said, "is that before these transfers were done from state to state whereas it's now from private sector to private sector.

"That's why it's important to provide incentives for the private sector in developing countries," she added.