Rich nations lack climate commitment: Indonesian minister
22/10/2008 17:24
Indonesian environment minister urged rich nations to keep their
commitments to help finance climate-change mitigation in developing countries
amid the on- going financial crisis.
"There is no excuse for not mitigating
climate change," the Jakarta Post daily today quoted Rachmat Witoelar as
saying.
Developed nations should differentiate between budgets to bail out
financial institutions and funds allocated to mitigate climate change, the
minister said yesterday.
Many developed nations, including the United States
and European nations, were attempting to renege on emission-reduction
commitments by using the economic downturn as an excuse, said the minister who
is also president of the UN's conference of parties on climate change.
Last
year, negotiators from 190 countries meeting in Bali agreed to take serious
action to cut emissions of carbon, the main contributor to climate change, with
industrialized nations promising to take the lead.
The Bali road map will not
be effective unless rich nations committed to finance mitigation in developing
nations, he said.
World leaders are expected to reach a new deal on emissions
cuts when they meet in Copenhagen in 2009, to replace obligations agreed to
under the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
The Kyoto Protocol requires
developed nations to cut emissions by 5 percent from their 1990 levels. The US,
however, refused to be bound by the protocol.
Xinhua
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