Tag: japan

8 December 2010

Cancun, Mexico – Japan earned a 1st place Fossil for its continued efforts to kill the
Kyoto Protocol by preventing a second commitment period from moving forward.
The United States, fresh off its first, and 1st place, Fossil in Cancun yesterday, earned
its first 2nd and 3rd place Fossils for slowing technology transfer and developing
country adaptation support.

The Fossils as presented read:
"The United States wins the 3rd place Fossil. Congratulations US - Technology
transfer has been a core commitment since the beginning of the Convention, and
we’ve already wasted too much time discussing how to do it. A workable proposal is
finally on the table and everyone else is willing to go with it and establish the new
technology mechanism here in Cancun. But yesterday, you made it clear that in your
view, the Parties should only ‘consider’ establishing it.

That’s strange, given that the Copenhagen Accord clearly states that leaders agreed to
‘establish a Technology Mechanism’, ‘operational immediately’. We are surprised
you are going back behind what heads of state already agreed to and try to renegotiate
a deal struck a deal struck among world leaders. For the last year, most parties in the
technology negotiations have been working hard to answer the remaining questions
and a lot of progress was made in Cancun. While everyone else is being flexible, your
obstructionism is blocking any progress.

The US championed the need for a technology center and network and you are
developing some regional center pilots, so why the heartburn on the proposal on the
table? Concerns by US clean tech companies about being under a burdensome and
bureaucratic UN body are misinformed; what our warming world needs is precisely
what a multilateral mechanism can deliver: coordinated planning and implementation
to speed-up and scale-up the what poor countries and communities need to transition
quickly to a low-emissions future."

"The USA wins the 2nd place Fossil for delaying agreement on the establishment of
an Adaptation Committee, which is demanded by developing countries to improve
coherence and coordination of adaptation under the Convention. The US continues to
insist on clarification of the functions and asked in Cancun whether this could not be
dealt with under SBSTA, an approach which they had rejected some years ago when
it was on the SBSTA agenda. The Convention process requires a dedicated
institutional arrangement on adaptation which can initiate further action, not limited to
technical advice. This function cannot be fulfilled by existing institutions outside the
Convention."

"The 1st place Fossil goes to Japan. Although the Minister arrived on Sunday, Japan
has not yet changed its position of rejecting to put its target for the second
commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, which virtually kills the future of the
Kyoto Protocol. Despite the plea from all around the world, even in the midst of the
isolation (with hidden allies consisting of Russia and Canada), Japan's inflexibility
endangers the whole discussion of the future framework at CANCUN, which the earth
desperately needs."

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About CAN: The Climate Action Network is a worldwide network of roughly 500
Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) working to promote government and
individual action to limit human-induced climate change to ecologically sustainable
levels. www.climatenetwork.org

About the fossils: The Fossil of the Day awards were first presented at the climate
talks in 1999  in Bonn, initiated by the German NGO Forum. During United Nations
climate change negotiations (www.unfccc.int), members of the Climate Action
Network (CAN), vote for countries judged to have done their 'best' to block progress
in the negotiations in the last days of talks.