"Major emitters" tag upsets poor nations at G20 talks
(Recasts, adds quotes on funding, background, changes byline)
By Chisa Fujioka
MAKUHARI, Japan, March 15 (Reuters) - Developing countries urged rich states on Saturday to be clear about funds to fight global warming and said the label "major emitters" for nations like India and Brazil was unfair.
Twenty of the world's top greenhouse gas emitters were meeting in Chiba, near Tokyo, to discuss ways to reach a global pact to curb rising carbon dioxide emissions by the end of 2009.
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair urged G20 members to launch a revolution to fight climate change.
"We have reached the critical moment of decision on climate change. There are few, if any, genuine doubters left," Blair told G20 energy and environment ministers and announced a new initiative to try to work out the shape of a global agreement.
About 190 nations agreed last December in Bali to thrash out a replacement to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012, but differences between rich and poor states over funding, technology transfer and binding emissions targets remain.
South Africa, Indonesia, India and Brazil told the meeting they objected to the term "major emitters" since on a per-capita basis, their carbon emissions were a fraction of the roughly 24 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent produced by the average American.
Washington says it will accept binding commitments to cut emissions if "major emitting nations" signed up too.
President George W. Bush has initiated a separate process outside U.N.-led talks to engage many of the G20 members, a process some developing nations have expressed doubts about.
G20 members, which include G8 nations, are responsible for about 80 percent of mankind's greenhouse gas emissions.
FUND FIGHT
South African Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk told Reuters it was crucial developing nations had greater involvement in the management of clean technology funds.
Bush has pledged $2 billion to the fund over the next three years, while Britain has pledged part of its 800 million-pound ($1.6 billion) Environmental Transformation Fund and Japan has announced the creation of a $10 billion financial mechanism to support developing countries.
But van Schaljwyk said it was only in the past few weeks that developing nations had even been consulted on the fund, to be administered by the World Bank.
It was also unclear if the money was new.
"A number of countries voiced quite strongly their concerns about how these funds will be run," said Ailun Yang of Greenpeace China.
"Our position is that this is not a kind of charity. It is funding in which implementation is closely linked to the post-2012 agreement, so this has to be done in a much more respectful way and have more consultation with developing countries," she said.
Japan is promoting the concept of sectoral emissions targets for industry at the talks but this, too, has run into problems, with Europe and some developing nations questioning the concept.
"The sectoral approach cannot replace the national binding targets under the UNFCCC," said Tomaz Jersic, deputy economy minister of Slovenia, which holds the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union, referring to the peak U.N. convention on tackling climate change.
"Not every country has the same position to develop this approach."
India also voiced concerns.
"It is something on which there is not yet clarity on what it will look like," said Indian delegate Ajay Mathur.
"So it is very difficult to say whether we will support it or not at this time."
Blair said a new initiative was needed to inform and advise the U.N.-led talks and he would lead the work politically.
He said the Climate Group, a non-profit body backed by industry and government, would assemble a group of experts to try to sketch out what a global deal would look like.
"We will publish a report in June before Japan's G8 summit and then carry on the work so that we can feed a final report into the G8 and U.N. negotiations next year," he said. -- For Reuters latest environment blogs click on: blogs.reuters.com/environment/ (Additional reporting by Chikafumi Hodo and David Fogarty; Writing by David Fogarty; Editing by Charles Dick)
By Chisa Fujioka
MAKUHARI, Japan, March 15 (Reuters) - Developing countries urged rich states on Saturday to be clear about funds to fight global warming and said the label "major emitters" for nations like India and Brazil was unfair.
Twenty of the world's top greenhouse gas emitters were meeting in Chiba, near Tokyo, to discuss ways to reach a global pact to curb rising carbon dioxide emissions by the end of 2009.
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair urged G20 members to launch a revolution to fight climate change.
"We have reached the critical moment of decision on climate change. There are few, if any, genuine doubters left," Blair told G20 energy and environment ministers and announced a new initiative to try to work out the shape of a global agreement.
About 190 nations agreed last December in Bali to thrash out a replacement to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012, but differences between rich and poor states over funding, technology transfer and binding emissions targets remain.
South Africa, Indonesia, India and Brazil told the meeting they objected to the term "major emitters" since on a per-capita basis, their carbon emissions were a fraction of the roughly 24 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent produced by the average American.
Washington says it will accept binding commitments to cut emissions if "major emitting nations" signed up too.
President George W. Bush has initiated a separate process outside U.N.-led talks to engage many of the G20 members, a process some developing nations have expressed doubts about.
G20 members, which include G8 nations, are responsible for about 80 percent of mankind's greenhouse gas emissions.
FUND FIGHT
South African Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk told Reuters it was crucial developing nations had greater involvement in the management of clean technology funds.
Bush has pledged $2 billion to the fund over the next three years, while Britain has pledged part of its 800 million-pound ($1.6 billion) Environmental Transformation Fund and Japan has announced the creation of a $10 billion financial mechanism to support developing countries.
But van Schaljwyk said it was only in the past few weeks that developing nations had even been consulted on the fund, to be administered by the World Bank.
It was also unclear if the money was new.
"A number of countries voiced quite strongly their concerns about how these funds will be run," said Ailun Yang of Greenpeace China.
"Our position is that this is not a kind of charity. It is funding in which implementation is closely linked to the post-2012 agreement, so this has to be done in a much more respectful way and have more consultation with developing countries," she said.
Japan is promoting the concept of sectoral emissions targets for industry at the talks but this, too, has run into problems, with Europe and some developing nations questioning the concept.
"The sectoral approach cannot replace the national binding targets under the UNFCCC," said Tomaz Jersic, deputy economy minister of Slovenia, which holds the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union, referring to the peak U.N. convention on tackling climate change.
"Not every country has the same position to develop this approach."
India also voiced concerns.
"It is something on which there is not yet clarity on what it will look like," said Indian delegate Ajay Mathur.
"So it is very difficult to say whether we will support it or not at this time."
Blair said a new initiative was needed to inform and advise the U.N.-led talks and he would lead the work politically.
He said the Climate Group, a non-profit body backed by industry and government, would assemble a group of experts to try to sketch out what a global deal would look like.
"We will publish a report in June before Japan's G8 summit and then carry on the work so that we can feed a final report into the G8 and U.N. negotiations next year," he said. -- For Reuters latest environment blogs click on: blogs.reuters.com/environment/ (Additional reporting by Chikafumi Hodo and David Fogarty; Writing by David Fogarty; Editing by Charles Dick)
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