SUNS  4325 Tuesday 17 November 1998

Buenos Aires, Nov 14 (IPS/Viviana Alonso) -- Representatives of 170 countries Saturday approved a two-year action plan to regulate key aspects of the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, under which the industrialised North will reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.

"We've won a significant victory," said Maria Julia Alsogaray, chairwoman of the Fourth Conference of Parties (COP 4) to the UN Convention on Climate Change which spent 12 days hammering out the agreement.

"This action plan will fill in the details that were missing from the protocol and pave the way for it to be implemented quickly."

At the closing ceremony of the meeting Alsogaray, the Argentine Minister of Natural Resources and Sustainable Development, highlighted the solidarity of all countries represented at the conference toward Central American nations that were devastated by Hurricane Mitch.

There was less unanimity on substantive issues at the two-week conference, during which discussions tended to be polarised between developing countries of the Group of 77 and the European Union (EU) and the United States. The clash of positions between the three blocs had
made agreement doubtful but, in the end, all parties approved the action plan Saturday.

The Climate Change Convention recognises that the emission of carbon dioxide and other gases resulting from the use of fossil fuels like coal and petroleum is one of the main causes of global warming. This, in turn, leads to storms, hurricanes, drought, floods and the spread of tropical diseases to temperate zones. It also causes polar ice to melt, thus raising sea levels and threatening to submerge islands and coastal areas.

The Kyoto Protocol, signed in December 1997 in Japan, obliges the industrialised countries of the North to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2 percent under 1990 levels by 2008-2012.

The Buenos Aires action plan relates to policies and measures destined to reduce emissions of harmful gases and urges industrialised nations to increase the transfer of clean technology to developing nations. It also lists the needs of states affected by global warming and the economic costs entailed in the fight against the greenhouse effect.

The plan is to consider issues linked to flexibility mechanisms provided in the Kyoto Protocol to help the industrialised countries meet emission-reduction targets. These instruments are the Clean
Development Mechanism (CDM), emissions trading and joint implementation.

The CDM and joint implementation will finance projects which contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, both in developing nations and those undergoing economic transition. Emission trading involves industrialised countries which have made commitments to reduce their emissions of harmful gases under the Kyoto accord. If one of these countries reduces its emissions by more than the agreed amount, it will be able to sell this surplus as "emission rights"to another country which has fallen short of the target.

The Action Plan will have to focus on analysing the nature and scope of the mechanisms, and other aspects such as criteria for selecting projects, compatibility with sustainable development,  monitoring, verification criteria and the roles of various institutions.

The plan also establishes time-frames for fine-tuning details of the protocol, so that it can be fully functional when it enters into effect in the year 2000.

In this regard, COP-4 called on parties to hand in new proposals on implementing the mechanisms by February-March 1999. The proposals will then be examined by two technical groups by April 15.

"This is a plan with political deadlines," said COP Executive Secretary Michael Zammitt Cutajar. "The key moment will be in the year 2000 when the Conference of Parties holds its sixth round of sessions."

EU environmental commissioner Ritt Bjerregaard told a news conference after the closing session that all the issues of specific interest to the Europe had been resolved satisfactorily. The EU had worked hard with other delegations at the Buenos Aires conference, especially the G-77 nations and China, which did not get enough attention in Kyoto, she said.

Calling on all nations to keep up the fight against global warming, she said the EU would continue to work with non-governmental organisations on the issue of emission reduction.

U.S. representative Stuart Eizenstat said the success achieved in Buenos Aires showed that the framework worked out in Kyoto was "the right one." He said the Buenos Aires talks were marked by signs of a new spirit of compromise that is helping to reduce the distance between industrialised and developing countries.