Mexico's Calderon urges all nations to do their part to stop warming+

TOKYO, Feb. 2 Kyodo -
Visiting Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Tuesday urged all nations,
developed and developing countries alike, to fulfill their responsibility in
global efforts to alleviate negative impacts of climate change, saying every
nation faces the threat of the natural phenomena.

Speaking at a United Nations University seminar, the leader of Mexico, which
will host a next round of key U.N. climate conference later this year, said not
only rich nations, which have accumulated greenhouse gas emissions, but also
fast-growing emerging economies are responsible in the fight against climate
change.
''Developed countries should have a great responsibility, but greenhouse gas
emissions from developing nations now account for more than half of the total.
China is already the world's top emitter,'' Calderon said. ''Emission reduction
efforts by advanced economies are not enough. We need everyone's
participation.''
Mexico has been advocating the climate financing initiative known as ''Green
Fund,'' to which both developed and developing countries are required to make
financial contributions. The upcoming climate conference in Cancun is scheduled
for November and December.
Comparing climate change to lifestyle-related diseases such as diabetes, the
president stressed the importance of focusing on ways to prevent the phenomena
from worsening, saying it would cost less than responding to consequences
later.
He also called for a mechanism to provide economic incentives to countries
tackling climate change, saying ensuring the sustainable growth of a low-carbon
economy would hold the key.
Looking back on the negotiation process at the last U.N. climate talks in
Copenhagen in December, Calderon indicated there were serious procedural
problems.
The climate talks in the Danish capital failed to adopt the Copenhagen Accord,
which was brokered by 26 key economies, and merely recognized the nonbinding
political agreement due to opposition from some countries that complained about
the closed-door drafting process.
The accord calls on developed countries to set their respective greenhouse gas
emissions cut targets for 2020 and developing countries to take action to
mitigate climate change.
''We need to realize that it is extremely difficult to get the absolute
consensus of all the parties,'' Calderon said. ''We need to understand that the
principle of consensus doesn't mean in any way the capability of veto coming
from three or four parties.''
''We need to recheck what will be the best mechanism in order to allow the
participation of all, but at the same time in order to get the best, more
profitable agreement'' with the overwhelming support of the members, he said.
He also emphasized the need to ''rebuild confidence and trust'' in the U.N.
multilateral negotiation process, which he said was somewhat lost during the
Copenhagen talks.
The president also said at a press conference later in the day that the
Copenhagen Accord should serve as a ''common denominator'' for all countries
involved in climate negotiations and the denominator, which is currently at a
minimum level, should be enlarged.
Mexico will ''patiently hear interests'' of those countries and try to reflect
them in the negotiation process so as to prompt parties to present more
ambitious emissions-cut goals, Calderon said.
In a related development, the secretariat of the U.N. Framework Convention on
Climate Change said Monday a total of 55 countries have submitted national
pledges to cut and limit greenhouse gases by 2020 under the Copenhagen Accord,
which had required countries supporting the pact to do so by Sunday.
The Bonn-based secretariat said the 55 countries together account for 78
percent of global emissions from energy use. UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de
Boer said in a statement he sees the pledges as ''clear signals of willingness
to move negotiations towards a successful conclusion.''
==Kyodo
2010-02-02 22:59:33


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