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APEC recommends a target to address climate change

PHOTO: AP

GLOBAL CITIZENS: A large portrait of Mahatma Gandhi is carried during an anti-APEC rally in Sydney on Saturday. Thousands of protesters held a colourful and mostly peaceful march near the summit of Pacific Rim leaders, demonstrating against visiting U.S. President George W. Bush, the Iraq war and about a host of other causes.

SINGAPORE: The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum on Saturday agreed to “work … towards achieving an … aspirational goal of a reduction in energy intensity of at least 25 per cent by 2030.” The goal would apply only to the Pacific Rim economies, including non-sovereign territories, under the APEC umbrella.

The non-binding commitment to move towards reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases by 25 per cent by 2030 will be reckoned against the levels recorded in 2005.

This was the centrepiece of the “APEC Action Agenda” that was adopted by the 21-member forum’s economic leaders at their summit in Sydney. The purely recommendatory target acquired importance, because the United States and China, two major energy-consuming economies, tuned themselves to the same wavelength of agreeing to a common “aspiration.”

India, another major energy-consumer, is not an APEC participant. So, Japan, a key member of the forum, is understood to have suggested, during the summit, that India should be brought on to the scene for any post-Kyoto Protocol arrangement designed to address world-wide climate change. Another important aspect of the Sydney meeting, as seen from India’s standpoint, was that the APEC leaders emphasised the “crucial” importance of energy sources entailing zero emissions or low-level release of greenhouse gases. This would cover nuclear energy, and the leaders advocated the adoption of suitable technologies too.

Also emphasised was the need for equity in any post-Kyoto Protocol arrangement beyond 2012. The Sydney Declaration on climate change, energy security, and clean development covered recommendations about enhancing forest cover too.

On the political front at the margins of the APEC meeting, U.S. President George W. Bush, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and Australian Prime Minister John Howard held a trilateral session on security issues. Mr. Bush, citing domestic concerns, cut short his participation in APEC events.

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