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Rich
countries are buying out their way from doing their part
in reducing greenhouse gases by passing on their part of
the effort to developing countries whom they pay with
financial and other assistance.
This was
the observation of Bernarditas Muller, a former senior
negotiator of the Philippines in the United Nations
Framework for Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC).
She said
these rich countries are using a loophole in the Kyoto
Protocol, where the provision on clean development
mechanism (CDM) states that technology transfer and
financial aid to developing countries that substantially
reduce toxic emissions are sufficient to be considered
compliance by these rich countries with the protocol.
She
worries that this practice is not as effective as the
developed countries themselves doing the reduction in
their own turfs, because there are other vital
considerations other than financial or technical
aspects.
“Governments should not only focus on mitigating the
effects of climate change, but adapting to its effects
that include various forms of health problems” that are
rampant in developing countries that usually budget
insufficient amounts for health services for lack of
funds.
She said
the recently concluded UN Convention on Climate Change
held in Bali had shown that major pollutant states like
the
United States
and the European Union have not been able to keep pace
in meeting their commitments to the UNFCCC to reduce
greenhouse gases.
Most of
the developed countries “merely focus on how they can
engage the developing countries to reduce emissions” so
that the amount of greenhouse-gas emissions that were
reduced would be added to the allowable amount of
greenhouse-gas emissions of the rich nations.
It would
seem to be a case of the poor being paid to clean up the
mess of the rich, some environment advocates opined.
They help the rich instead of the rich helping them by
reducing their waste.
And, as
Muller said, “It is important to keep in mind that the
CDM is the contribution of developing countries to
assist the developed countries to meet their emissions
reductions targets under the Kyoto Protocol.”
She was
speaking in an interagency forum on the UN convention on
climate change Thursday at the Seameo Innotech in
Quezon City.
She
urged that the “CDM should not merely be an instrument
to shift the burden of implementation of commitments of
developed countries under the [Kyoto] Protocol to the
developing countries where, presumably, but not
necessarily, these emissions reductions are more
cost-effective, which means in reality [are] cheaper for
developed countries.”
Muller,
now a senior adviser for climate change of the
Geneva-based South Centre, an intergovernment think tank
of 51 developing countries, said the Philippines will
now undergo this year a second review of its commitment
to the UNFCCC on greenhouse-gas reductions.
Muller
would meet with the Presidential Task Force on Climate
Change to present the outcome of the Bali meeting and
propose future measures to be undertaken by government.
The
Kyoto Protocol was adopted during the third committee of
parties meeting on the UNFCCC in December 1997 in Japan.
It requires rich countries to reduce their greenhouse
gas emissions below levels specified for each of them in
the treaty.
These
targets must be met within a 5-year period, from
2008-2012, and add to a total cut in greenhouse gas
emissions of at least 5 per cent against the baseline of
1990. |
