Posted: 01/09/2006
U.S. Climate Change Strategy Should Lead AP6 Meetings
NCPA E-Team Scholar Says Technology Should Drive Asia-Pacific Summit
DALLAS (January 9, 2006) - As the Asia-Pacific climate change conference prepares to kick-off next week in Australia, NCPA Senior Fellow H. Sterling Burnett says adaptation and technological innovation, both integral to the U.S. government's position on climate change, should drive any agreement.
"A more technological and scientific approach to climate change is crucial," Burnett said. "Despite high-minded rhetoric, the European approach-driven by the energy restrictions of the Kyoto Protocol-is failing miserably."
The so-called AP6 nations-Australia, Japan, South Korea, China, India and the U.S.-will meet this week in Sydney for two days of discussions about how to go "beyond Kyoto" and forge a technical strategy for living with rising temperatures. The U.S. contingent at the talks will include Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman and James Connaughton, chairman of the President's Council on Environmental Quality. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice was also scheduled to attend.
"Few, if any, of the Kyoto signatories will meet their emission reduction goals because they refuse to sacrifice their economies to meet those goals," Burnett pointed out. "And even if they did, it would not affect climate change."
By contrast, the AP6 nations are focusing on bringing cleaner technologies to market sooner rather than later, and especially on providing those technologies to countries that need them now.
"There is no question that improving prospects for the world's poorest nations while reducing potential negative impacts from future climate change is taking place within the rubric of the AP6 climate talks, not Kyoto," Burnett added.