Brussels, 11/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - The EU Troika's round of climate change talks to seek support for ratifying the Kyoto Protocol on climate change (even on the American continent, see yesterday's EUROPE, p. 9) ended in Japan on Wednesday on a positive note. In the view of Kjell Larsson, the Swedish Environment Minister, Olivier Deleuze, the Belgian Secretary of State for Energy and Sustainable Development, and Jos Delbeke from the European Commission, the Troika met its objectives. Russia, Canada, Iran, China and Japan all explained that they were taking the latest intergovernmental panel's warnings on climate change very seriously and were extremely concerned at the attitude of the Bush Administration in the United States, which unilaterally announced the death of the Protocol (despite having signed it themselves). All the countries visited by the Troika believe that climate change is a global issue that has to be addressed by a global policy and they likewise all insisted that it was vital that the international negotiations due to be relaunched in Bonn in mid-July on the actual implementation of the Kyoto Protocol are successful (relaunch of COP6 negotiations after the breakdown of the talks in The Hague).
The meeting of the parties to the Protocol, which will be taking place in New York on 21 April on the margins of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Committee, will provide an opportunity to get the ball rolling again on negotiations over a new compromise package which has just been sent to all the parties by Jan Pronk, the Dutch Environment Minister and President of COP6. The European Union is determined to intensify its co-operation with all the countries visited and has repeated its preparedness to continue its ratification process, with or without the US, with the support of the countries visited to breathe new life into the negotiations.
The different members of the Troika each had a different interpretation of the likelihood of the US changing its mind and deciding to get involved in the Kyoto Protocol again. Apparently Japan, which sent a delegation to the United States after the EU Troika's visit to Washington, was given more encouraging signals than the US gave Europeans (on the Protocol).