Climate Treaty Hangs in the Balance

["Greenbase" <greenbas@gb.greenpeace.org>]

CLIMATE TREATY HANGS IN THE BALANCE AT NEGOTIATIONS IN BONN  
WASHINGTON, 

March 3 (GP) - Dangerous climatic changes caused by global
warming will occur worldwide unless governments of major
industrialized countries agree on legally binding targets to
reduce greenhouse emissions, Greenpeace said today, on the
opening day of an international meeting on climate negotiations
convened in Bonn, Germany.
 
The sixth meeting of the Ad Hoc Group on the Berlin Mandate (or
AGBM 6) kicks of the final series of preparatory discussions
before the crucial United Nations climate convention meeting in
December at Kyoto, Japan.  Nations are expected this week to
table their specific proposals for greenhouse gas reductions,
with the goal of creating a draft protocol text for a global
treaty.  Such a text is legally required to be submitted by
June 1 so that a climate protocol can be adopted at the Kyoto
meeting.

Kalee Kreider, coordinator of Greenpeace US's climate campaign,
said she has grave concerns about the success of the Bonn
meeting.  "Most of the proposals on the table to date from the
USA, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, open up critical
loopholes or seem designed to block agreement," she
explained, "and none have put forward an emission reduction
target." 

Kreider said the United States, as one of the world's largest
emitters of greenhouse gases, is a major player in
the negotiations.  However, she criticized the US draft position
released in January, saying certain proposed
measures for reductions are too weak, too vague, or simply won't
work.

"In the case of the US proposal, the devil is in the lack of
details," Kreider said.   "The US time frame for
reductions focuses on 2010 to 2020, when the scientific
consensus demands that reductions begin by 2005. 
The plan contains no definitive targets for the amount of
reduction, and assumes compliance by nations that
have no legal emissions limits. This plan clearly falls  short
of the steps needed to halt the catastrophic
climate change the treaty is meant to address."

Kreider said only the eventual phase-out of fossil fuels, and
the use of renewable energy technologies in their
place, will bring about the greenhouse gas reductions needed to
avert further climate change.  

The recent Greenpeace expedition to Antarctica has shown the
world that climate change has already begun
to take its toll. "Collapsing ice-shelves, declining penguin
colonies and other rapid changes in the Antarctic
Peninsula show what is ahead for one of the world's last
wilderness areas," said Kreider. 

Climate scientists have long predicted the polar regions will
experience the fastest warming of any area in the
world and as such, will be indicator regions of global climate
change. Large temperature rises have been
recorded in both the Arctic and the Antarctic.  In the Arctic
annual temperatures have increased by about 1.5
degrees - three times the global rate - over land masses in
Canada's western Arctic, Alaska and eastern
Siberia. The Antarctic Peninsula has warmed by 2.5 degrees since
1947, the fastest increase on record.

Note: A series of political and scientific briefing papers are
available on request.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
In the US: Kalee Kreider (202) 319-2523; Deborah Rephan,
Greenpeace News Desk (202) 319-2492
In Bonn: Bill Hare, Director, Greenpeace International Climate
Policy  011-31-6-534-33454.