Asian nations pledge to act on climate change

The Associated Press

SINGAPORE: Some of the world's biggest polluters - including China, India and Australia - pledged new protections against the devastation of climate change and global warming at an Asian summit meeting Wednesday. Climate change dominated the agenda at the one-day East Asia Summit, which included the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, plus China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

The leaders were expected to issue a joint statement calling on the international community "to urgently act to address the growth of global green gas emissions." According to the draft of the joint statement, the summit will call on the 16 countries to actively take part in forging a new environmental blueprint to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. But Rafael Senga of the global conservation group WWF said the draft declaration falls short of the region's ambitions.

"Major players in the region, like China and India, should show leadership in crafting a global consensus towards concrete targets and decisive action," he said. He said the Singapore summit is the litmus test for the major climate conference next month in Indonesia to create a successor to Kyoto.

"Rhetoric must be scaled down, and genuine regional cooperation on sustainable energy must be scaled up," Senga said, adding that Asian nations have tremendous potential for developing a clean energy sector. The Kyoto Protocol requires developed countries to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions to 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. But the United States and Australia have refused to join it because it exempts China and India, two major polluters.

Australia, the world's biggest greenhouse gas polluter on a per capita basis, says the emission targets would hurt Australian industries and give competitive advantages to developing countries. The Australian foreign minister, Alexander Downer, told reporters there were signs India and China have recognized they need to take action to stabilize and reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions.

"They are not going to take the view that only developed countries should deal with this issue," Downer added. "I think there has been a turning of the tide in terms of China and India's position on climate change." China's booming economy has propelled it past the United States as the world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide, the atmospheric pollutant that is primarily responsible for global warming.

Two-thirds of China's power comes from coal, which releases more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than any other energy source. Over the next five years, the country expects to complete at least one new coal-fired power plant each week. In India, several automakers are competing to provide affordable cars to the country's enormous middle class. Some 300,000 cars were registered last year in New Delhi alone.

To be continue in other article...

(Jakarta, Kamis 21 February 2008, 07.39 pagi)

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