PRESS CONFERENCE ON CLIMATE CHANGE BY G-77 CHAIRMAN

                At a Headquarters press conference this morning, the Chairman of the Group of 77 Developing Countries and China told correspondents that the outcome of the recently concluded Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany, was a welcome victory for the international multilateral process.  Bagher Asadi (Iran) said global problems required global, multilateral solutions and in Bonn, the entire international community -- despite the United States’ withdrawal from the negotiations –- had resolved to safeguard the embattled Kyoto Protocol by agreeing on concrete and far-reaching political initiatives aimed at reducing greenhouse gases and furthering implementation of the United Nations Convention on Climate Change.

Mr. Asadi said that from a technical point of view, the political agreement reached at the Bonn Conference also contained stipulations on the elaboration of a framework for operational guidelines and rules and compliance procedures for the Kyoto Protocol.  Once the details were completed in a resumed meeting in Marrakesh this coming November, the final outcome would pave the way for ratification of the Protocol.

Characterizing the agreement in Bonn as an “honourable deal”, Mr. Asadi said the conference managed to satisfactorily bring all relevant parties and partners, both developed and developing, to the table -- with of course the exception of one.  Highlighting the achievements he considered important for developing countries, he noted agreement on a comprehensive framework for capacity-building, concrete mechanisms for transfer of technology to developing countries, agreement on measures to minimize the adverse affects of climate change and the establishment of three new funds for developing countries.  The European Union, together with Canada, Japan and Switzerland, had made a joint Political Declaration to provide some $400 million per year to those funding mechanisms.

On the role of the Group of 77 in the process during the run-up to the Conference, he stressed that since early April, his delegation had expressed its dissatisfaction with the United States’ unilateral policy regarding the Kyoto Protocol and had underlined the importance of universal agreement by all members of the international community on climate change issues, particularly in a rapidly globalizing world.  Expressing its willingness to work with all parties, the Group had entered the Bonn meeting with the explicit intent to foster proactive dialogue and cooperation with the North.  The Group also made it known that as the Conference’s largest negotiating block, it simply could not be expected to join any agreement worked out among others.

With those overall guiding principles and with a sense of objectivity, realism and flexibility, the Group had participated in the intense negotiations during the Conference’s high-level segment, which, after a sleepless night of marathon meetings, had made the Bonn agreement possible.  He added that what transpired in Bonn had been the manifestation of genuine North-South cooperation in the context of transparent multilateral, intergovernmental processes.  That outcome should augur well for the future work of the Group of 77 and its relations with others.  “It was a good process, a good outcome which produced a solid basis to build upon”, he said.

Turning to the upcoming Tenth Meeting of the Intergovernmental Follow-up and Coordination Committee on Economic Cooperation Among Developing Countries (IFCC-X), he said the preparations were now in the “advanced stage.”  The Meeting would take place in Teheran from 18 August to 23 August and would work toward strengthening the economic independence of the South in a fast globalizing economy.  All the documents that would be considered at the conference had been distributed among the Group’s members as well as among United Nations agencies and regional economic groups and research organizations in the South.  The Meeting was expected to draw ministers at the highest level.  The Group was going into the Meeting well prepared and it expected many substantive discussions, particularly on how to further implementation of the outcome of the Programme of Action adopted at the 2000 Havana South Summit.  He added that a Web site had been created which detailed all aspects of the Meeting.

A correspondent wondered if either the Convention or the Protocol could still be considered effective without the participation of the United States, the world’s largest contributor of greenhouse gases.  Mr. Asadi said that the outcome of the Conference had brought on board such countries as Japan, Russian Federation, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway, among others, which would ensure that overall ratification of the Protocol would cover nations responsible for at least 55 per cent of emissions.  So even though the United States had withdrawn from the negotiations, the joining of those countries, particularly Japan and the Russian Federation, ensured the Protocol could be ratified.  

Mr. Asadi was then asked how he could counter the United States argument that countries like India and China -- both G-77 members -- were not being held accountable for their part in contributing to greenhouse gas emissions.  He said that the question of specific quantitative targets for those that had signed the Kyoto Protocol had been limited to only a certain number of advanced industrialized countries, not developing countries like India and China.  That decision had been made despite the size of those countries or how advanced they might be considered in relation to other developing countries.  He said that debate had cast some nations as “major developing countries” whose emissions should be targeted, but the issue -- over the objections of the United States and others -- had not been on the table at the Bonn meeting.

Mr. Asadi added that despite the United States withdrawal from the negotiations in Bonn, that country’s delegation had not attempted to obstruct the process in any way.  It had participated more actively in discussions related to the Climate Change Convention than those on the Kyoto Protocol.  “Perhaps one could say the American delegation acted as an ‘observer’ of the process,” he said. The United States was still considered as a serious partner in future negotiations, however, and the Group hoped that the achievement in Bonn could be conducive to the early re-engagement of all members of the international community.

Another correspondent said that industrialized countries were often not very forthcoming in technology transfer schemes.  What specifically was the Group expecting in that regard?  Mr. Asadi said that within the framework of sustainable development, as well as the frameworks of the Kyoto Protocol and the Climate Change Convention, developing countries required certain types of technologies in order to combat the emission of greenhouse gases.  For example, he said that

technology to enhance fuel efficiency would be particularly helpful to developing countries.  He acknowledged a certain reluctance on the part of some developed countries, but he reiterated that technology transfer had been agreed within the Kyoto process.  All that remained was to ensure that that particular stipulation was implemented to the fullest. 

A correspondent noted that over the last few years, the diversity of the Group had been highlighted by difficulties in negotiating the outcomes of international conference on certain social issues such as population and development, women, and, most recently, HIV/AIDS.  Did Mr. Asadi see member States becoming more cohesive on social issues in the future?  Mr. Asadi said that while the Group would actively consider such value-laden social issues, its focus had traditionally been on economic and development issues.  That would not change. Indeed with the needs of over 133 countries to consider, economic and development issues presented the Group with an "overflowing plate".  “If we can take care of that effectively, that will be enough for us,” he added.

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