Britain's Prescott pushes for Kyoto Pact backing

VANCOUVER, Canada - The Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gas emissions must be ratified even without United States support, British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has told an international conference on business and the environment.

Prescott said that while the US decision to reject the Kyoto agreement is a cause for concern, pressure will be maintained on the Bush administration to go further with its current voluntary emission-reduction targets.

"This is the world's best chance of dealing with a very serious threat to it," Prescott told delegates from 65 nations at the Globe 2002 conference in Vancouver which ended today.

Prescott, Britain's front man in pushing the accord, said the United States until recently was critical of the science that led to the Kyoto pact but has now accepted it, and he remains optimistic that the goals of the United States and of other signatory nations would converge.

The Kyoto Protocol calls on countries to reduce emissions of so-called greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, which are blamed by many scientists for global warming, to pre-1990 levels by 2012.

Named for the Japanese city were it was approved, the pact was signed by 84 countries, including the United States and Canada.

Fifty-five countries responsible for 55 per cent of emissions in 1990 must ratify it for it to take effect. Forty-nine countries had done so as of mid-March, according to the United Nations.

Europe's environment ministers have agreed that all 15 EU nations should adhere to the Kyoto Protocol. Ratification could win support at an EU summit later this month in Barcelona, Spain. The process is expected to be completed by June 1.

Prescott said the British programme aims to cut emissions by 20 per cent, and the country is now half way to that goal.

The issue has pitted business groups, who claim the accord will hurt the global economy, against environmentalists, who warn of the dire effects from global warming such as higher ocean levels and destruction of various plants and animal species.

Canada is among the countries that have pledged to ratify the accord. Canada's environmental minister, David Anderson, is under pressure from the country's energy producers to follow the US position.

Prescott came to Anderson's support on Friday, agreeing that financial figures quoted by Kyoto opponents in Canada about the potential damage to the Canadian economy were "pure fiction".

A study by the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters Association said the accord would cost the Canadian economy up to C$40 billion ($58.97bn) by 2010, but a Dutch report released earlier this week said it would only be C$727 million.

"At the least the difference between some estimates clearly shows a great deal more talking and assessment is needed," Prescott told the delegates, who represented both business and environmental groups.

- REUTERS

nzherald.co.nz/climate

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

United Nations Environment Program

World Meteorological Organisation

Framework Convention on Climate Change

Executive summary: Climate change impacts on NZ

IPCC Summary: Climate Change 2001