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Brussels (pte024/29.07.2005/12:56) - The European Union cautiously welcomed a new pact centred on cutting greenhouse gasses and improving the ecosystem http://www.eubusiness.com/guides/environment
. The pact involves the United States and five Asia-Pacific countries and is meant to complement the Kyoto protocol http://www.eubusiness.com/links/kyoto.2005-02-16 .
A spokeswoman for the environment commissioner Stavros Dimas, Barbara Helfferich, said, "It will complement and not replace Kyoto."
The six-nation accord between United States, Australia, India, China, South Korea and Japan does not specify time-frames or enforcement standards, which makes environmentalists sceptical that it will achieve anything at all. More specific attention needs to be given, they say, to developing less-polluting technologies, clean coal, energy efficiency and burying greenhouse gases.
"It doesn't address the wider question that two of the richest countries in the world are doing nothing to reduce emissions," said Steve Sawyer, climate policy director at Greenpeace.
Jennifer Morgan, climate change expert of the WWF conservation group said: "This is just a technology transfer accord. If this is taking the issue seriously, the planet is in serious danger."
The United States, the largest polluter in the world, and Australia, are the two main developing nations that refused to ratify the 152-nation Kyoto protocol in 1997.
Nonethless, as spokewoman for the EU environment office, Helfferich said, "We see it (the agreement) as complementary. Clean technology is an imporant issue but it certainly cannot do the emission cuts that we need to combat climate change."
"This needs to be done in a global regime," she said.
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