"With the successful conclusion of the climate change negotiations in Bonn, Europe has proven leadership at the global level", said Dr. Hermann E. Ott, Head of the Climate Policy Division of the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy. After long and exhausting negotiations the delegates agreed on the details of the Kyoto Protocol adopted in December 1997 that are considered vital for its entry into force. With standing ovations delegates and observers greeted this result, which owes much of its success to the tireless work of the UN Climate Secretariat and its outgoing Executive Secretary Michael Zammit Cutahar.
Conclusions of the negotiations are a great success, although the result is not completely satisfactory in environmental terms. According to the compromise achieved in Bonn, the overall reduction of greenhouse gases will be lower than originally foreseen in the Kyoto Protocol. Would the nations use all the loopholes provided, reductions would not be much lower than 1990 emissions. However, a second failure of negotiations would have been a severe and possibly lethal blow to the process. The consensus decision furthermore represents a viable result that is open to further improvement.
"Considerable efforts are needed now to arrive at scientifically sound inventories for carbon absorbing activities like forestry and agricultural activities", demands Thomas Langrock, Research Fellow with the Climate Policy Division of the Wuppertal Institute. "Additionally, the parties to the treaty must ensure that activities like afforestation or reforestation projects in developing countries have to comply with strict ecological and social standards".
After the successful conclusion of the negotiations in Bonn, the Kyoto Protocol, adopted in December 1997 and pending entry into force since, is ready for ratification. "Now there is one single and most important thing that Germany and the EU must do: they must without delay ratify the Protocol", states Dr. Ott. "Ratification of the agreement will confirm that governments are tackling climate change and send positive signals to industry and consumers". Even the US would not be able to resist the innovative effects of climate policy and its positive impacts on economic development. With skilful diplomacy the European Union has built an alliance for effective climate policy independent from the US. This should be strengthened in the years to come, in particular with regard to developing countries.
Press release by Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy
in the Science Centre North Rhine-Westphalia
Responsible: Prof. Dr. Peter Hennicke, President
Contact: Dorle Riechert, Public Relations
Tel. +49 (0)202 2492-180, Fax +49 (0)202 2492-108
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