last updated 15th December 05
by 4ecotips.com

Jonathon Porritt says "forget Bush administration"

The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Montreal concluded its two-week long session with a last-minute agreement to extend the Kyoto Protocol beyond its end date in 2012.

It was the eleventh Conference of the Parties (COP 11) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the first conference held after the Kyoto Protocol came into effect. Over 8,000 delegates attended from 189 countries.

Under article 3.9 of the Kyoto Protocol, the signatory nations need to initiate meaningful discussions on new commitments by 2005, seven years before it expires in 2012.

The main talks over the post-Kyoto agreements started in the second week of the conference and continued until the "eleventh hour". At one point, an unexpected objection from the Russian delegates seemed to eliminate any chance of future agreements. But negotiations continued all night and after making compromises to meet Russia's demands, the delegates finally reached an agreement to hold discussions to extend the Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012.

China, India and Australia have all fallen into line, but America remains out of the loop although the US delegation seemed a little bit more "malleable".

Commenting on the outcome, Sir Jonathon Porritt, Chairman of the UK Sustainable Development Commission, says: " It's good that we have seen much more positive attitudes from countries like China, India and so on. And it's sort of good that the Americans have now come back into the fold of reasonable diplomacy by agreeing to continue to talk".

"I guess that is an achievement of sorts although don't forget that's exactly what they said back at the Glen Eagles summit in July as part of the UK's presidency of the G8."

Porritt said that what had been really interesting was listening to the debate and that "there is a different consensus emerging now not just amongst the exsiting signatories to Kyoto but amongst the vast majority of countries if not all countries, but we have to push this further and faster."

"If America won't join - or at least and let's be clear about this - if this administration in America won't join then that cannot be any cause to slow down the process. We have got to move it without the US administration."

"The world sees the Bush administration for what it is now. This is a rogue administration that is acting totally against the interests of the rest of the global community."

"So, forget about the Bush administration. We must focus on the new diplomatic efforts going on elsewhere in America with the city mayors and governors, and with the huge number of progressive American companies who are more than ready to start moving on this now. And with the majority of the American people and Republicans such Senator McCane and so on."

"There is a vast constituency of interest there. The Bush administrationdoes not represent American opinion. It only represents those industrial interests that enabled Bush to get into political office. That's all they represent these days."

Our photo shows a polar bear waiting for the water to freeze on the edge of the Hudson Bay near the city of Churchill, Manitoba, Canada. Global climate change threatens the habitats of the polar bear and many other species.

(AFP/Getty Images)