By VAUGHAN YARWOOD
The withdrawal of the United States from the 1997 Kyoto Protocol has sunk hopes of a meaningful deal being struck at this week's climate talks in Bonn.
Yet the reason given for the walkout - that the draft accord would go lightly on countries such as China and India, giving them an unfair commercial advantage over the US - doesn't stand up.
The developing countries of Asia, the biggest losers if global warming is unchecked, argue that the major industrialised countries should take the lead in tackling the problem. After all, they are responsible for the bulk of greenhouse gases and are best resourced to implement solutions.
Indeed, the Kyoto Protocol holds out the promise of technology transfer and carbon trading (the buying and selling of emission rights) to help fast-track environmental programmes in poorer countries, with Dutch Environment Minister Jan Pronk suggesting a target of $US1 billion ($2.46 billion) a year in assistance to developing countries.
To succeed without the US, Kyoto needs the support of Japan, which has deferred any decision until October. But while Japan continues to talk about reducing its own greenhouse gases to 6 per cent below 1990 levels by 2012, it has taken no practical steps to make that goal a reality.
Instead, some Japanese corporates have taken the initiative.
Electronics maker Sony, for example, has announced plans to cut power use at its factories by 30 per cent and carbon dioxide emissions by 15 per cent by 2005.
But opposition to regulation from industry groups such as the Japan Federation of Economic Organisations has worsened government inertia. In the past decade Japan's emissions of carbon dioxide have risen almost 10 per cent to an estimated 1.24 billion tonnes in the year to March 2000.
Meanwhile, the need for action has grown even more urgent, with the Asia Development Bank's latest report painting a bleak picture of environmental degradation in the region.
The report says short-term economic policies have resulted in levels of air pollution, water scarcity and erosion which threaten continued economic growth. Thirteen of the 15 most polluted cities in the world are in Asia and an estimated 90 per cent of its wildlife habitats have been lost to agriculture, deforestation and development.
The situation is especially grim in China, home to nine of Asia's 10 worst cities for air pollution. The ADB calculates economic losses caused by health effects from air and water pollution alone at up to 7.7 per cent of China's GDP.
Symbolic of China's woes are the sandstorms, caused by erosion and drought, that regularly sweep across the north of the country, often drawing a gritty veil of darkness across the streets of Beijing itself.
But China's emergence on the world stage is having an effect. Its bid for the 2008 Olympics concentrated the attention of Chinese leaders on the environmental state of Beijing and resulted in plans for new sewage plants and a clean-up of the city.
The ADB hopes China's membership of the World Trade Organisation will prompt it to introduce integrated productivity and environmental management.
Meanwhile, since the mid-1990s China has reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 17 per cent, in the face of 36 per cent GDP growth and despite being exempt under the Kyoto accord. By contrast the United States over the past decade has increased its own gas output by 13 per cent.
Most tellingly, China's globally-minded companies such as oil refiner Sinopec have begun adopting Western health, safety and environment management systems to ensure they aren't locked out of world markets. Sinopec recently announced it would spend $US146 million this year to improve safety and environmental performance.
Taking their cue from Beijing's new concerns, foreign corporates are starting to sponsor environmental projects. Unilever will this year pay for reforestation and other conservation projects and Coca-Cola is funding well-digging and the planting of a 315ha shelter belt north of the capital in conjunction with state charity Project Hope.
It is hard to believe that, in making such philanthropic gestures, Coca-Cola and Unilever have less of a take on business reality than Mr Bush.
* Vaughan Yarwood can be contacted at hiero@ihug.co.nz
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
Latest from Business
Market close: KMD Brands’ share price sinks to all-time low
But the New Zealand sharemarket had a welcome rise of more than half a per cent.