Consensus on climate change elusive for Pacific Rim leaders

SYDNEY: Pacific Rim leaders attending an annual summit will call for urgent progress in stalled global trade talks, according to a draft statement, but their officials struggled Monday to find consensus on climate change.
Prime Minister John Howard of Australia is urging leaders at this year's meeting of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum to forge a new international framework on global warming that rejects binding targets for greenhouse gas emissions.
Howard's proposal, however, has touched off disagreement, with developing countries lining up against the Australian plan.
The Philippines, for example, leans against the proposal in its current form and sees much debate over it as likely, a senior Southeast Asian official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Malaysia's trade minister, Rafidah Aziz, reportedly said last week that Australia and the United States should back off because they have not ratified an earlier UN-backed agreement on climate change, the Kyoto Protocol.
Multimedia

Climate Change: Global warming and the impact of human activity.» View
Related Articles
Sydney prepares for APEC forum
Today in Asia - Pacific
One South Korean's story of abduction and repatriation
At least 25 are killed in coordinated explosions in Pakistan
Western Australia reaps huge profits from Chinese boom
vers say that if a consensus on climate change can be reached by APEC economies - which include the world's top three greenhouse gas emitters, the United States, China and Russia - it could shape talks at a December UN meeting in Bali, Indonesia, on a successor to Kyoto, which expires in 2012.
On trade, senior APEC officials approved a draft of a statement leaders are expected to adopt during the meeting this weekend that calls for a new push for progress in the current, languishing round of global trade talks.
Achieving progress in the trade talks, known as the Doha round, has "never been more urgent," according to a draft of the statement obtained by The Associated Press. "We pledge to push hard for the progress necessary to ensure the Doha round negotiations enter their final phase this year," it said.
Trade negotiators were scheduled to meet in Geneva later Monday to begin three weeks of talks over new proposals to bridge differences on cutting farm subsidies and industrial tariffs among the 151 members of the World Trade Organization.
"We all realize that the stakes are high. Time is running out," said David Spencer, the Australian who chaired the senior officials' meetings. "For the next few weeks, it is critical that we make some progress in an effort to move to the final stages of these negotiations."
APEC includes the economic powers China, Japan and the United States, and accounts for nearly half of global trade. But its influence over the global trade talks is limited because it doesn't include key WTO players such as the European Union, India and Brazil.
Meanwhile, APEC members are also studying a proposal to create a Pacific-wide free trade zone, although officials cautioned that it remained a long-term prospect that was still being studied.
President George W. Bush was due to leave Washington on Monday for the event, and for a busy round of meetings on a trip that is meant to show he is not neglecting the region.

Terms of Use

Back to top
Home > Asia - Pacific