Howard & Chimp Vow Climate Action, w/o Targets, Schedules As APEC Deadlocks On Non-Binding Statement

[hatrack]

SYDNEY, Sept. 6 -- One of the first agreements to emerge Wednesday from meetings between President Bush and Australian Prime Minister John Howard was a pledge to take joint action to combat climate change. It is an issue that neither leader has been closely associated with in the past. Both Australia and the United States refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 U.N.-led effort that set goals for major industrialized nations to cut the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming.

Bush and Howard have attacked the Kyoto treaty, with its binding goals for reducing emissions and its lack of mandatory limits for developing countries, as making no sense for their countries or the environment. That stance led to widespread international and domestic criticism. But as the politics of climate change shift in both countries -- with a consensus forming to battle a problem now seen as urgent -- so too have the public postures of Bush and Howard.

Now, both men are trying to position themselves as leaders of a new plan for battling climate change, relying not on mandatory goals but on making it easier to share clean-energy know-how with developing countries. Climate change is one of the key issues on the agenda for the leaders of 21 Asian and Pacific nations gathering here for their annual summit. Howard, who is hosting the gathering, is pushing leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, or APEC, to agree to a climate change statement before the meeting ends.

Howard announced a domestic plan earlier this year to create an emissions "cap-and-trade" system for Australian industry that would place limits on greenhouse gas emissions by 2012. The plan creates a financial incentive for reducing pollution, while protecting fossil fuel-burning industries by allowing them to essentially buy credits from less-polluting companies that do not reach their emissions caps. Bush, meanwhile, has been pushing for a climate change regimen that, unlike Kyoto, would include developing nations and give countries a voice in setting goals for cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/05/AR2007090502311.html?hpid=topnews

SYDNEY (AFP) — Asia Pacific ministers are deadlocked over a common statement on climate change to be issued by their leaders at the end of a weekend summit, a Japanese official said. "The gap among the members is still wide," the foreign ministry official said on condition of anonymity.

Foreign ministers of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, which groups 21 Pacific rim economies, met over breakfast hosted by Australian counterpart Alexander Downer.

"The foreign ministers stuck to their own principles on details of a climate change statement," the Japanese official said.

"One group in particular remained opposed to introducing a numerical target in the leaders' statement, although Foreign Minister Downer stressed that the target is not binding."

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http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jLrrG8brS6NPlSyZS1IjYzFkqsIQ