India urges support for Kyoto climate pact
Date: 24-Oct-02
Country: INDIA
Indian environment minister T.R. Baalu told a U.N. climate conference the world risked greater hunger and poverty because of changes in the weather and the protocol had to be implemented as quickly as possible.
"We must bring into force the protocol without delay. Rises in temperature are already beginning to affect physical and biological systems," Baalu told the opening session of the 10-day annual U.N. conference.
"Frequent floods and droughts are having a serious impact."
India is among the more than 90 countries that have ratified the treaty.
The conference is expected to focus on how shifting weather patterns may hurt developing countries.
Baalu said lower rainfall and higher temperatures stemming from climate change were expected to reduce world food grain yields.
"The increased risk of the negative impacts of climate change in developing countries will worsen poverty. Hunger is estimated to increase," he said.
Kyoto aims to lower greenhouse gas emissions from the developed world by 5.2 percent of 1990 levels as a first step to bigger cuts aimed at stopping global warming. Targets under the 1997 treaty so far only apply to developed states.
To come into force, the protocol must be ratified by enough industrialised countries to account for at least 55 percent of the developed world's 1990 carbon dioxide emissions.
The pact, signed by then U.S. President Bill Clinton, was a result of the first Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro 10 years ago. Clinton's successor, George W. Bush, pulled out of the treaty last year, saying it would hurt the U.S. economy.
Without the world's biggest polluter, a vote-weighting system means the pact is dead in the water without Russia but Russia has given its backing and has said it may ratify the treaty this year, virtually ensuring its implementation.
"Let's press for the entry into force of the Kyoto protocol - the key for which is with developed countries," said Baalu.
Recent climate disasters around the world - from droughts in India and the United States to floods in Europe - have served as potent warnings of some of the expected consequences of global warming.
The meeting brings together more than 3,000 delegates - including 80 government ministers from 185 countries.
