Brussels, 23/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - A week from the resumption of negotiations on the climate (COP 7, Marrakech, 29 October - 9 November), Olivier Deleuze, who will chair the EU delegation declared himself optimistic as to the outcome of the conference which he firmly expects will "enable hesitant countries to take the political decision to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on climate change".
Speaking to the press, in Brussels on Tuesday, Olivier Deleuze considered that Marrakech would be a test and an opportunity for the international community to "show that it takes sustainable development seriously" and thus send a strong signal to the World Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg, September 2002). According to him, the international context should have a positive influence on the conference, "like the pitiful pictures of the Summit of Genoa" had been an incentive to make a success of the Bonn conference (COP 6 -2), the concomitance of the WTO ministerial conference of Doha (9-13 November) with the COP7 offers the international community the opportunity to focus on "the ethical side of globalisation" and "offer prospects for the populations"; the fact that the conference is being held in an Arab and Muslim country, is, moreover, "a positive thing in itself, in that it will contribute to combating the Arab/Muslim/fundamentalism/terrorism assimilation", said Olivier Deleuze, also pleased that the host country should be a Southern country, as "sustainable development is not a luxury of Northern countries". For the EU, it is, he says, important to retain the "pilot position" that it has so far held and that "it does not have everywhere". The three proposals on climate change that the Commission adopted on Tuesday (see above) have crucial importance here, Mr. Deleuze stressed, notably for the Union commitment to ratifying the Protocol before September 2002 to be respected. For him, success in Marrakech is linked to one condition: not to re-open issues closed in Bonn regarding observance schemes, financing, flexibility mechanisms (try to reintroduce the nuclear sector in the clean development mechanism or review the figures set for recourse to carbon sinks would be a grave error). The following issues should, however, be negotiated: 1) procedures of the Executive Committee of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and appointment of a group of experts responsible for transfers of technology to launch the CDM as quickly as possible; 2) application of articles of the Protocol concerning an inventory of greenhouse gases in industrialised countries and their annual reports; 3) Article 4.2 of the Framework-Convention (obligation for industrialised countries to implement national policies ad communicate their contents to the Convention's Secretariat); 4) simplified joint implementing mechanisms for the countries of Central and Eastern Europe; 5) arrangements of the non-legally binding observance scheme.
Flexibility and opening in relation to the Americans, who will be represented in Marrakech in the same spirit as in Bonn, will be on the table, Olivier Deleuze added, declaring: "We shell keep all doors open and avoid anything that may prevent the United States from changing its mind". A video-conference will be held on Wednesday between the high level EU/American group on climate change, with, among others, Mr. Deleuze and European Commissioner Ms. Wallstrom, as well as Ms. Dobrianky (Assistant Secretary of State for Global Affairs) and Ms. Tod Whitman (Administrator at the American Environmental Protection Agency).