Muscular protocol to supplant Kyoto

Sri Lanka rocks Bali confab

by Shanika Sriyananda

Small too can do wonders. Then why not the pearl of the Indian Ocean - Yes, the tiny dot in the world map is now rocking the world giants at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change, currently on in Bali, Indonesia. One would wonder how Sri Lanka would be able to put up fight with world giants who seem to be rocking the world. While the giants pollute the world at an alarming rate, causing ice caps to melt, oceans to rise and weather patterns to go awry small nations like us become sufferers due to natural disasters, then a need arises to join the chorus with a strong voice at the confab for a better future from now and beyond.

The largest ever meeting on 'Climate Change', which kicked off last Monday urged the world to bring in a new international pact to replace the present Kyoto Protocol, which is due to expire in 2012. Slowing down the global warming is seen as an urgency at the forum. Having available know-how to bring down the flash points this place is the only option available.

It is little known that green house gas emissions from the far corners of the world, have made some of the low lying areas in Sri Lanka to submerge, with the breath-taking coral reef around the island breaking apart, adding to many other destruction along the line. So it is time for small developing countries to stand up and plead in unison "Don't cook the climate".

The Environment Minister, Patalee Champika Ranawake in an interview with the 'Sunday Observer' said that Sri Lanka, a small country, would be compelled to face several other major natural disasters in the future due to global warming. "Sea would rise by 23 feet within the next four decades. Colombo, Batticaloa and Jaffna districts are more vulnerable to rise in sea levels. Therefore here what we want to emphasise is that per capita emission rate should be taken into account than a country's emission rate", he pointed out. Minister Ranawake said that the Government would take a close look at the achievements made to mitigate global warming, adaptation to climate change and use Bali 2007 as a forum to ensure equitable opportunities to the developing countries for achieving their economic development and expectations while at the same time adapting to climate change through pro-active of the Annex 1 Parties to the Convention and committing them for further significant emission reductions.

Sri Lanka going beyond its size will stand tall among the world giants by proposing changes at the Bali Climate Change Conference, where over 10,000 people including world famous politicians, scientists and media from 190 countries gathered to discuss ways to put the lid on excessive discharge of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrogen oxide which is commonly known as green house gas emissions.

According to Minister Ranawake the government delegation, which is led by the Jathika Hela Urumaya, General Secretary and Chairman of Central Environment Authority, Udaya Gammanpila, strongly emphasised the need to implement an Adaptation Fund, reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries and Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) opportunities beyond 2012. They have already discussed these proposals with delegates.

He said that the Sri Lanka has decided to lobby on CDM as a major portion of the turnover accounting 90 percent will go to rich countries leaving a little to the developing countries. He said under the present conditions, the lion's share will go to China (36 per cent) India (17 percent) and Brazil, the countries who dominate CDM business.

The main reason, according to Minister Ranawake, is that compared to developing countries like Sri Lanka, the carbon-saving projects in these countries are operating on a large scale and they could easily capture the market.

"This is the very reason that we proposed to consider the per capita emissions instead of taking into account the country's emission rate. Pollution is not a problem of an individual country. Pollution caused by the main polluters would bring not only to them but largely to the small countries like us", he said.

However, the climate change has brought about very disastrous results to many a developing nation. Apart from submerging of some of the cities, a severe shortage of water would be imminent. The signs of danger loom in every corner of the world. The best example for this is the great rivers - Indus, Yangtze, Hwang Ho and Brahmaputra in India and China, which are flowing from the Himalayas. It is predicted that billions of people will supper from non availability of water for drinking as the glaciers in the Himalayas, which are the main sources of water supply to these rivers, are melting at a rapid rate due to warming.

The global warming has caused multiple disasters and damages to the earth and its fauna and the flora while creating conducive atmosphere for some of the insect species like cockroaches and mosquitoes to survive and thrive and make other species to vanish forever.

"Several countries have confirmed their willingness to support us in our proposal, the 'an Adaptation Fund' to compensate those who have been affected due to disasters resulted due to climate changes", he said.

Adaptation Fund

The current agreement of the Parties to finance the Adaptation Fund is by monetising 2 percent of certified emission reductions (CERs) issued for CDM project activities. When reviewing the current and forecasted project portfolio for CDM, it is expected to generate US$ 80-300 million per year during the period 2012-2030. Since the Kyoto Protocol became effective, the general consensus among the developing countries is that the participation of the Annex I Countries in the CDM process is only in the form of CER buyers. In reality, the burden of CDM project development including the project risks lies solely with the developing countries. However, it is common knowledge that the climate change impacts are mainly due to emissions from developed countries, especially the Annex 1 Countries. Therefore, it is our view that there is a need to establish a mechanism so as to enable the Annex 1 Countries to contribute to the Adaptation Fund. Thus, Sri Lanka looks forward for developing a mechanism which could facilitate channelling a significant portion of funds to the Adaptation Fund from the other two Kyoto mechanisms ie; the Joint Implementation and Emission Trading.

Although the Protocol provides generic eligibility criteria for countries to access funds from the Adaptation Fund, early action is required to fine tune these criteria to enable capturing the level of vulnerability assessed through a scientific assessment process combined with types of adaptation measures and country's capacity to undertake projects. In view of the availability of limited funds in the Adaptation Fund, such fine tuning is essential to optimize the scarce resources.

CDM trading is the major business opportunity under the whole process in its target to put the lid on deadly gases. This is mainly a mechanism to help the countries which are below the world average carbon emissions and those in the category of high polluters. It is US$ 10 for a ton of carbon and the total carbon-trading turnover is estimated at US$ 30 billion. It is expected to be increased to $50 billion in 2008.

Reducing emissions

For over many decades coupled with traditional indigenous practices, some developing countries such as Sri Lanka has been able to halt the rate of deforestation thereby consolidating permanent forest estates in respective countries. Such tree resources act as carbon sinks by capturing emissions coming from elsewhere in the globe. Therefore, Sri Lanka wishes the parties to explore CDM mechanisms to recognise the conservation efforts of forested nations. Such an approach would be an incentive to protect the existing forest through local initiatives by the respective countries. Such an approach would require having scientific mechanisms in place to assess the potential of each country based on the nature of the forest cover in each country, their growth potential, and level of their contribution to reduce concentration of GHG gases in the atmosphere.

"Sri Lanka wishes to propose broadening the rules for small scale forestry projects in order to create an environment so that developing countries like ours could benefit from more number of projects", Minister Ranawake said.

Consideration of Carbon emission absorbed by the country's forest cover is another proposal made by Sri Lanka at the Conference. The forests in tropical countries play a major role in reducing green house gases.

Especially the Sinharaja forest is already absorbing huge amount of CO2 but upto now there is no consideration about the help for these natural resources in our countries. The true value of this service has not been realised by anyone so far", Minister Ranawake added.

CDM opportunities

During the first commitment period which is due to end by 2012, the expectations of the developing countries have not been thus far realised to their fullest satisfaction due to various barriers. While some of these barriers are due to inherent problems of the CDM process itself, some reflects on the weak capacities of the countries concerned. This has finally resulted in inequitable distribution of CDM benefits to the well deserved. Sri Lanka proposed to have some inbuilt mechanisms to ensure equitable benefits to all developing nations.

In Sri Lanka's view, one of the ways to ensure equitable distribution is through guaranteeing a certain quantity of CERs to each country over a specified period of time.

"To jeopardise the economic development efforts of the developing countries, we believe in following the rule of per capita emissions rather than the total emissions of a country for determining the amount of emission reductions.

According to the ecosystem consistency, the maximum level of emissions per capita is 4 tons. However, maintaining the maximum threshold per capita emissions below 4 tons should be a precondition." he added.