12 October 2000

Published by Fern

 

 

CLIMATE AND SINKS UPDATE   II

Thanks to all of you who wrote to Finnish, Swedish, French and your own ministers last week. We had a really good response and some great letters. If you have not send a letter yet, you can still do it. Please check our website for the background information and contact us for a draft letter and fax numbers.

 

Swedes want sinks at home and possibly abroad as well (via the CDM)

The Swedish Environment Minister, Kjell Larsson, only had vague answers to NGO questions on Sweden’s position on sinks, at a meeting (11 October) with environment NGOs in preparation for the upcoming Swedish Presidency of the EU.  The Swedes are one of the three main EU member states (the others being France and Finland) who are promoting the ‘opening up’ of domestic sinks activities and in doing so providing the US a leverage to break open the current EU position against carbon sinks.

 

Larson, nonetheless, admitted that the sinks issue has great potential to damage the Protocol. He agreed that ideally, given the uncertainties, conflicts and risks involved, commercial forestry activities should have been left be left out of the Protocol.  When NGOs made clear, however, that opening up the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to sinks is contradictory to that position and could be equally if not more damaging to the Protocol, and to forests and forest peoples, Larsson had very little to say about this issue. 

 

Sweden is talked about in the context of one of those member states attempting to weaken the EU position against the inclusion of sinks in the CDM. Although not confirmed, the Swedish reasons for this might be the following: it would allow the Swedes to trade off their strong  ‘no nuclear energy projects in the CDM’ position with other ‘pro nuclear’ EU member states such as France; it would complement their position of wanting to opening up to domestic sink activities.

 

Nevertheless, avoiding a disaster for the climate, forests and indeed the credibility of the Protocol will require a strong EU position, and we therefore have to keep working on specifically the Swedes, Fins and France to ensure they do not undermine the current EU position.

 

Conclusions Environment Council meeting on 10th October

As EU Council meetings are closed, it is not yet clear what was discussed at the Council meeting. We do know that ministers discussed a EU strategy for The Hague. If they are wise, they will have to determine what the EU’s bottom line is:  at which point in the negotiations is the Protocol no longer worth the paper it is written on, because of the number of loopholes included.  There will certainly not be support from the NGO community for a Protocol that fails to address climate change and promotes incentives for forestry activities in the North or South that cause biodiversity loss, social upheaval, increased poverty and environmental degradation.

 

SPECIAL COUNCIL SESSION ON 7th NOVEMBER

A special Council session on climate change will be held at 7th of November. We have not seen an agenda yet. Mme Dominique Voynet, the French Environment minister, proposed at the Council meeting of  10 October , that NGOs be allowed to attend this special council session on climate change. NGO support  is vital to ralleigh the EU Member States to agree a Protocol that is environmentally credible. We should support the French proposal and will, once we have more information, attach a letter of support to the next action alert for sign on.

 

Parliament’s Environment Committee meeting , Brussels 9-10

Certain MEPs expressed considerable concern over a recent video conference call between four MEPs and four members of the US congress. The US continues to threaten not to ratify the Protocol lest it contain everything the US want. These are the black mailing tactics of the US, we also saw in action in Seattle.  It was once again noted by the Parliament that in comparison to the intimidatingly large US delegation, the EU delegation could be somewhat intimidated at the Hague?