Brussels, 02/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Union will be sending a high level delegation to Australia and Japan next week to prepare the ground for the next international negotiations on climate change (COP 6, Bonn, 16/27 July). Olivier Deleuze, Belgian Secretary of State for Energy and Sustainable Development (on behalf of the acting Presidency of the Council), Lena Hjelm Wallén, Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden, Lars Danielsson, Secretary of State working for the Swedish Prime Minister (on behalf of the previous Presidency) and Margot Wallström, Environment Commissioner, will visit Australia on 6/7 July (Sidney and Canberra) and Tokyo (Japan) on 9 July in order to convince these key partners to agree to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, even if the United States does not. After the informal consultation in The Hague where Japan did not give any assurance on this subject (see EUROPE of 29 June, p.9), and the recent meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi and President Bush, the meetings of the European mission with Foreign Minister Tanaka and Environment Minister Kawaguchi will take on vital importance. The interlocutors of the European delegation in Australia are not yet known.
Barring further change to the programme, COP 6 will be held at ministerial level from 19 to 22 July to continue after at the level of experts.
Greenpeace warns against temptation to amend Kyoto Protocol
Reacting to information whereby Japan is said to be preparing amendments to the Kyoto Protocol to bring the USA back to the Protocol, Greenpeace warns against such an initiative which, it believes, would empty the Protocol of its substance, and hence of its effectiveness.
In a press release, Bill Hare, Greenpeace International Climate Policy Director, said: "Time is running out now for Japan and the Kyoto Protocol. Greenpeace is convinced that efforts to renegotiate the Protocol's targets and timetables to appease the Americans will fail and result in the effective death of the Protocol. This will mean the loss of a critical five to ten years of action, which the climate cannot afford". On the eve of meetings between the Japanese Prime Minister and British authorities, on one hand, and French authorities, on the other, Greenpeace invites the European leaders to "tell it clearly if it is going the wrong way".