Brussels, 17/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - The hopes of an agreement in Bonn between the 180 countries that gathered to negotiate the arrangements for application of the Kyoto Protocol have just faded away (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.9). But for all that, the Union's stands just as firm in its determination to rally all its energy to safe the protocol against all odds - and particularly against the attempt by the United States to hinder its ratification by key partners such as Japan and Australia. The declaration adopted on Monday by the Heads of State and Government of the EU Fifteen bears witness to this. The Union's political leaders call on all industrialised countries to assume their responsibilities in the common effort needed to fight against climate change, pursuant to the commitment that they took when ratifying the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Published the day when negotiations interrupted in November in The Hague (COP 6 bis, 16-27 July) resumed at a technical level, the declaration is a strong signal to the United States and to Japan, present at the G8 opening in Genoa on Friday with climate change on the menu.
In the declaration, the Heads of State and Government justify their appeal by drawing attention to certain key elements, namely: 1) the sixth conference of the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention is aimed at resolving outstanding issues in order to prepare the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol; the conclusion of a global agreement on these questions should therefore mark an important stage in the fight against global warming, leading to the implementation of the Protocol and to more effective application of the Framework Convention. 2) Through the Protocol, already signed by 84 countries and ratified by 34, the industrialised countries had agreed to reduce their combined levels of greenhouse gas emissions by at least 5% by 2008-2012, compared to the 1990 levels. For this reason, and in conformity with the determination confirmed by the European Summit of Gothenburg, the European Union remains firmly decided to put the Protocol into effect by 2002. 3) The Community and its Member States are determined to respect the commitments taken under the Kyoto Protocol (8% reduction compared to 1990). Having already managed to reduce its emissions by 4% between 1990 and 1999, the EU is convinced that complementary measures must be taken by the Member States and by the Community in order to ensure, as it should, reduction of the remaining 4%. The European programme for climate change that it has put into implementation aims at having these additional measures adopted.