UN meet breathes life into Kyoto Protocol

Former US president Bill Clinton (L) and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin (R) address a press conference during the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Friday in Montreal. In a show-stealing appearance rumoured to have irked the US delegation, Clinton defended the UN's Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gases that was ditched by his successor, George W. Bush, and said the switch to cleaner energy would create millions of jobs for the American economy. PHOTO: AFP

"We have completed our Montreal marathon, although the road before us remains so long. We are going to reconcile humanity with its planet," Canadian Environment Minister Stephane Dion said as he brought down the gavel on a meeting high on drama, and long on exhaustion.

The meeting of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was tasked with charting the next steps in tackling the emissions from fossil fuel gases that scientists say are trapping heat from the Sun and disrupting Earth's fragile climate system.

After often-bitter negotiations, members of the Kyoto Protocol agreed to start talks on how to cut their emissions beyond 2012, when the treaty's present "commitment period" expires.

That agreement was a crucial show of support for a treaty that has been in deep trouble since March 2001 when the United States, the world's biggest carbon polluter, walked away from it. Australia is only other industrialised country that has refused to ratify Kyoto.

The accord also gave a powerful boost to the fledgling market in carbon emissions, a key mechanism set up under Kyoto to encourage cuts. The market has been beset by fears that Kyoto could die after 2012.

"Kyoto is alive and kicking," declared European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas.

The Montreal agreement also built a bridge between the Kyoto members and the United States by agreeing to a "dialogue" on how to make long-term cuts in greenhouse gas pollution.

The dialogue is vaguely worded and, in deference to the United States, has no binding obligations or specific goals.

But, if it works, it could break US isolationism on climate change.

Green campaigners hope that by involving the United States more closely in a multilateral process, it will be easier for Washington to come back into the Kyoto fold after US President George W. Bush leaves office in January 2009, they hope.

Greenhouse gases are the carbon byproduct of burning oil, gas and coal.

Billions of tonnes are released into the air each year, trapping heat from the Sun and causing what scientists say are early signs of climate change -- disruption of rainfall patterns, melting glaciers and polar sea ice and, possibly, the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, the worst on record.

Even if all the present Kyoto goals are met, industrialised countries will have trimmed output of greenhouse gases by just one or two percent by 2012 as compared to a 1990 benchmark.

Tackling the problem will thus require a broader, longer-term approach, bringing in the United States, the world's No. 1 polluter, as well as China, which is the second biggest contributor to greenhouse gases, and maybe Brazil and India too.

This is politically very tough, not just because of Bush's fierce opposition to the Kyoto format because of the cost for the oil-dependent US economy.

Developing countries at present lie outside the requirement to make specific cuts in emissions. They argue that rich countries are most to blame for global warming because of their unbridled burning of carbon fuels in the 20th century.

Another task will be switch economies from dirty fossil fuels to cleaner energy sources.

That is the biggest challenge of all, because oil, gas and coal have a tight grip on the world's energy market, enjoying a big price advantage and political clout over new, cleaner alternatives such as solar, wind, hydrogen and biofuels.

The Montreal meeting, gathering 8,700 ministers, senior officials, green campaigners, scientists and businessmen, was to have ended late Friday.

But it ended at dawn on Saturday after the United States battled on the "dialogue" question and Russia raised a last-minute roadblock on launching the post-2012 Kyoto talks.