EU to Lobby Russia, Iran, China, Japan on Climate Change

A European Union (EU) environment troika is set to lobby Russia, Iran, China and Japan on the global warming issue after its ongoing tour of the United States, the European Commission said Tuesday.

The EU troika, currently in Washington for talks with American environmental officials, is expected to visit the four countries to persuade them to join the efforts to hold the Kyoto Protocol from collapsing and guarantee the scheduled resumption of the UN conference on the climate change framework agreement.

The troika is formed by environmental officials from the European Commission, the executive body of the 15-nation bloc, Sweden, which is holding the rotating presidency of the EU, and Belgium, which is going to take over the EU presidency in early June.

An official of the European Commission said the decision on the four-nation tour, which is due to start on Friday, was made for the reason that Russia and China have been heavyweights in the climate change issues, while Iran is holding the presidency of the Group of 77 that is the key lobby group at the UN conference on the climate change.

Meanwhile, Japan hosted the 1997 UN climate conference when the Kyoto Protocol was signed and developed countries promised to reduce their respective emissions of greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide.

The US announced its pullout from the Kyoto Protocol on March 28, a move surprised the EU which has been a main opponent to the US proposal of purchasing emission rights by investing in re- forestation programs in both the US and the developing world.

The bitter bargaining between the EU and the US during the sixth U.N. conference on climate change last November in The Hague, Netherlands, brought the negotiation to a dead-end without producing any concrete measures for developed countries to reduce their emissions.

The EU troika was trying to salvage the Kyoto Protocol commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions among developed countries after US President George W. Bush claimed that either the protocol's mandatory cuts on carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels or the timetable are no longer suitable to his country.

The Bush administration said that it would seek instead an alternative that would include poorer, underdeveloped countries now exempt from Kyoto commitments.

The Kyoto Protocol calls for members of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to cut emissions of heat-trapping gases by an average of 5.2 percent below the 1990 levels by 2012 at the latest.

However, since the protocol was signed in December 1997, US carbon dioxide emissions have continued to grow, now nearly 15 percent higher than that in 1990.

The UN said Monday that 40 to 50 environmental ministers would hold an informal meeting in New York on April 21 to prepare for resuming the global climate change talks in Bonn in July.






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