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By Helene Coley-Nicholson |
Sources say the tendency is for bigger developed and oil producing countries to oppose the setting of energy targets that will see investment in cleaner renewable sources and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions which cause climate change. Vested interests are opposed to targets, which will hurt their economies by reducing demand for petroleum products. As negotiations proceed, there have been tradeoffs of one set of targets for another. On Saturday night, the energy targets were traded for those on sanitation to the chagrin of the now muted SIDS.
Commenting on the trade-off, energy expert, Professor Al Binger of the University of the West Indies Center for Environment and Development said, "There are no specifics yet as to what percentage and in what period. But just the general principle that we would trade energy targets to get sanitation is unacceptable. What we are talking about is just two different forms of pollution; one that is local in impact and one that is global. If you look at it, sanitation is basically a health issue particularly for poor populations while global climate change is one that's going to affect disproportionately countries like our own and by not setting targets, what we will see is continued pollution of the global commons by those who have been using it for years."
Latin America and the Caribbean and the European Union are the only regional blocs where there has been consensus on the need to set targets on energy. The deliberations at the sustainable development summit are focused on five major issues; energy, health, water and sanitation, biodiversity and ecosystems and agricultural productivity. Large parts of the G77 do not want energy targets.
Asked whether or not the trends in the negotiations are an indication of the final position, Professor Binger said while people are talking there is always hope but given the extended period over which they have been negotiating and the little progress made on things like reduction of energy subsidies as well as the unwillingness of countries to consider effective ways to build energy partnerships, ".we might not be able to salvage a lot from this." He suggested that the next option for the Alliance of Small Island Developing States (AOSIS) might be to focus a lot harder on the upcoming review of the SIDS agenda in Barbados in 2004. Not holding out much hope however, the professor said Barbados + 10 will only be focusing on small island states and there will not be any great probability of getting the kind of international agreements that will roll back or in any way alter the kinds of agreements that will come out of the WSSD.
An AOSIS leadership Summit at 3:00 p.m. Sunday hoped to figure out what strategies to pursue and how to proceed. One of weaknesses of the Caribbean is the inadequacy of the number of leaders here. This has hurt the region because only high-level leadership gets access to the floor of the summit and gets listened to. As a consequence, the Caribbean has had to depend on the AOSIS as a collective group of small islands to carry the burden of the negotiations for the region.
A resolute Binger, who voiced sentiments similar to other members of delegations from CARICOM, declared, "If our future is imperiled, we can't be silent. We have to speak up and now is the time to speak up. We have to be willing to go on record if things don't go like they should to express our disappointment and to ask the leadership of the world to reconsider a lot of their positions. The fact is that while we will be among the first to suffer as small island states, as we are finding out from the floods all over the world, this is not going to be something that discriminates; everybody, sooner or later, is going to feel the impacts of growing pollution".
The latest report from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has confirmed suggestions that island states within the tropics that are vulnerable to climatic variability and events like hurricanes will be among the first to suffer the negative impacts of climate change. Since the discussions on climate change began, the SIDS have been pressing for urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They want early ratification and implementation of the Kyoto Protocol, progress on a clean development mechanism and a shift away from fossil based energy systems. Most members of AOSIS are petroleum dependent. Development of alternative renewable energy sources would provide economic as well as environmental benefits.
There is also concern at the highest levels within CARICOM delegations that the process of hammering out a final Political Declaration has taken an unusual change. The United Nations Bureau in New York, which facilitated participation in the process leading up to Johannesburg, was dismantled after the last Preparatory Committee meeting in Bali, Indonesia. Now, nobody seems to know what's in the Political Declaration, which will be the final surprise of the conference. Asked to comment, Professor Binger said, "I consider that somebody has hijacked a lot of our freedoms."
The Political Declaration is the document that will bring together all the different views on all the various subject matters of the conference such as energy, water, health, sanitation and education. It is the blueprint on how nations will go forward from the summit as a global society. The professor said, "That should not be something that is done in smoky rooms or with a few people. That should have full aeration, full visibility and full participation."