TRADE & ENVIRONMENT: GREEN CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME, SAYS GREENPEACE

22 March 2001

Berlin - Greenpeace International said they were disappointed with the rhetoric of rich nations, particularly the USA, Canada and Australia, at the conference on Trade and the Environment held this week in Berlin under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the German government. Greenpeace said that industrialised countries would not be taken seriously as long as they continue to avoid effective reduction targets of their own climate change-inducing CO2 emissions.

"In the last few days, we have seen the US, Canadian and Australian governments making every efforts to sink the Kyoto Protocol", said Greenpeace International Climate Policy Director Bill Hare, "while at the same time asking developing countries present in Berlin to act responsibly".

In addition to last week’s announcement reversing the Bush administration’s campaign pledge to cut CO2 emissions from power plants, US Vice President Dick Cheney yesterday was quoted as saying that "We do not support the approach of the Kyoto Treaty", adding that the US is now supporting nuclear power as a ‘solution’ to climate change.

Meanwhile, secret documents leaked to Greenpeace reveal that the Canadian environment minister David Anderson has called on Latin American governments to support a Canadian proposal which would, "pour petrol on the flames of the controversy surrounding the Kyoto Protocol", said Bill Hare. "Trying to scuttle Kyoto via the back door by bullying Latin American governments to accept their bad proposals on sinks, while at the same time criticising the Europeans for trying to live up to their commitments is incredibly hypocritical."

The Australian government has also chimed in supporting the Bush rejection of Kyoto, attempting to lay the onus of the problem on the developing world, which is clearly at odds with the facts. The OECD countries are responsible for approximately 80 % of CO2 emissions worldwide.

"Green charity begins at home", said Bill Hare, "and unless the US, Canada and Australia stop being cynical and ratify the Kyoto Protocol, developing countries who are bound to be the prime victims of climate change will not take them seriously".

Approximately 80 countries in Berlin agreed today in a joint statement that "at the global level, coherence between trade and environment regimes needs to be enhanced in order to build synergies and avoid potential conflicts between Multilateral Environment Agreements and the World Trade Organisation" and that "more efforts are needed to enhance co-operation and exchange of information between Multilateral Environment Agreements and the World Trade Organisation", but Greenpeace said this was "hypocritical empty rhetoric as long as the US, Canada and Australia were undermining the Kyoto Protocol on climate change".

"Industrialised countries must stop patronising developing countries on environmental issues", said Greenpeace International Political Director Remi Parmentier. "Instead they must act in accordance with their own obligations and commitments made almost ten years ago at the Rio Earth Summit, especially with regard to climate change".

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

- Bill Hare +49 170 9057015
- Remi Parmentier +31 6 535 04 702
- Siubhan Leslie/Juergen Knirsch +31 6 15093584

www.greenpeace.org/~climate/climatecountdown