Too sweet a pill
led by the us and Australia, six nations, including India, announced on July 28, 2005, a new pact on climate change, based on voluntary goals and measures. The "Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development (appcd)' focuses on the development of clean technologies, rather than the emissions reduction target approach of the Kyoto Protocol (kp) , the global treaty to fight climate change. The us and Australia have consistently opposed kp on economic grounds. The appcd club, with Japan, China and South Korea as its other members, accounts for almost 50 per cent of global greenhouse gas (ghg) emissions.
Experts warn appcd would complicate negotiations on kp's successor (required after 2012), to be held during the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change meet in Canada in November 2005; appcd's first meet is to be held in Adelaide, Australia around the same time.
A challenge for Kyoto? "The coinciding meetings could send mixed signals...It is possible the us administration is organising