Published by Fern 27.06.01                             www.fern.org

CLIMATE UPDATE IX

Dear friends,

New updates in the lead up to COP6bis

Governments have resumed talks on the Kyoto Protocol, in the lead up to the next meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP6bis) in Bonn, starting July 16th. Fern will be actively monitoring and informing the participants in this debate, and call on you for support when needed. We therefore have resumed our updates. If you do not want to receive these updates anymore, please let us know and we will take you of the list.

The next round of negotiations is scheduled for July 16-27, 2001 in Bonn, Germany.  After the failure of the climate summit last November in The Hague and the announcement of the Bush administration that the USA will not ratify the Kyoto Protocol, pressure is mounting on the EU to cave in on its positions that would have ensured the environmental integrity of the Kyoto Protocol. The topic of carbon sinks will once again feature very prominently on the agenda in Bonn, and there is a growing threat that the resumed climate summit in Bonn will end with plantations being eligible for carbon credits under the Clean Development Mechanism (see also Climate Update I-VIII or www.fern.org for more details on and arguments against including carbon sinks in the CDM).

The importance of Japan

We will need to step up the pressure in the run-up to and at Bonn to ensure that the true threat climate change poses to forests is on the agenda rather than the dubious idea of carbon sinks. The decision of the Bush administration has put Japan in the spotlight of international attention: Given that the USA will not ratify the Kyoto Protocol at this point in time, the quorum for the Kyoto Protocol to enter into force (55 countries responsible for 55% of greenhouse gas emissions) will only be achieved if either Canada or Japan will ratify the Kyoto Protocol along with the EU, Russia and the CIS countries. Both countries are part of the Umbrella Group, a group of countries, including the USA, which negotiated in close co-operation during previous climate negotiations.

Canada has already signaled that it will not sign the Kyoto Protocol if its most important trading partner, the USA, does not sign. Thus, ratification hinges on Japan. This is bad news for those concerned about the environmental integrity of the Protocol, and in particular about the (ab-)use of carbon sinks in the Kyoto Protocol because Japan has been one of the strongest proponents for the widespread use of carbon sinks in the Kyoto Protocol.

Sign on to statement

In preparation of COP6bis in Bonn, we attach the NGO statement 'sinks- who wins, who looses'. Please sign on to the statement if you have not done so yet. The statement was prepared in The Hague but as nothing has changed - or rather only got worse - with regards to sinks we will focus our attention in Bonn once again at educating negotiators about the negative impacts of plantations - the most likely form of sinks projects in the CDM.

Next update

In the next issue we will send you a brief summary of the relevant sections from the negotiating text that will form the basis of discussions in Bonn.