Kyoto deal is done
July 25, 2001 – Fossil fuel lobbyists, President Bush and other reactionary politicians will be the only ones with frowns on their faces as the political deal approved on Monday was adopted in a plenary at the Bonn UN climate conference today. Millions around the world rejoiced at the break-through climate deal struck earlier this week, now Governments must immediately make the steps to ratify the treaty at home.
Russia made last minute efforts to delay adoption so as to blackmail Parties into allowing more hot air: a larger volume of lucrative sinks ‘credits’ valuable in future global carbon credits markets. Russia is expected to meet its Kyoto targets easily, since economic decline has led to a reduction in industrial output of carbon dioxide, but wider usage of “carbon sinks” would allow it to sell spare capacity to other states. The emissions trading component of the Kyoto Protocol constitutes one of its major get-out clauses: a market in hot air.
Friends of the Earth International Climate Campaigner Kate Hampton commented: “Overcoming the efforts of Bush and other fossil fuel fossils to undermine the treaty in Bonn is only the first step. Governments have approved and adopted the agreement, now they must ratify. A victory for international cooperation, science and our common humanity here in Bonn has been justifiably celebrated, but Bonn was the just the start, the ratification process at home is now key. With a 2002 ratification deadline much is still at stake – and the climate will not wait.”
Contact:
Kate Hampton 00 44 7748 967 323
Ian Willmore (Media) 00 44 7887 641 344
Howard Mollett (Media) 00 41 792 160 206
