SBY to tell G8 leaders to stick to the Bali road map

Abdul Khalik , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Tue, 07/01/2008 10:24 AM | Headlines

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will attempt to persuade major country leaders to stick to the Bali road map when he delivers his speech during the G8 meeting in Hokkaido, Japan, next week.

Presidential spokesman Dino Patti Djalal said the President had written a letter to Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda to request time to speak about climate change and food security issues during the forum.

"We believe both issues are crucial to us and the world," he told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Leaders of the Group of Eight wealthy nations will hold their annual meeting on globalization, energy and food crisis in Hokkaido, Japan, from June 7 to 9.

Leaders from the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Britain, Japan, Italy and Russia have invited leaders from India, China and Brazil, as well as Indonesia, to talk about climate change.

An official at the environmental ministry said Yudhoyono would push for China, India and the G8 nations make the Bali agreement "a success", in order to develop a new climate deal in Copenhagen by the end of 2009. A new pact would replace the current Kyoto Protocol, which will expire in 2012.

Despite international praise for the Bali meeting in December last year, which brought the United States to the table of an international discussion to create a new climate deal, progress has since been slow. There has been little preparation for the global climate meeting in Poland by the end of 2008 and the Copenhagen meeting.

Progress has been hampered by persistent wrangling between rich and poor countries over the necessity of setting explicit targets to limit emissions of carbon, as well as claims that China and India -- two of the world's major polluters -- have brought little to climate negotiations.

Indonesia has repeatedly called on the international community to stick to the Bali road map after a series of negotiations preluding the Poland global conference failed to reach the expected results.

The latest round of UN-sponsored global climate change negotiations in Bonn, Germany, failed to reach a consensus on new binding emissions cuts for wealthy nations, which are widely blamed as the main contributors of carbon dioxide causing climate change.

In March, an international conference held in Thailand similarly failed to set a binding target for emissions cuts.

The Bali road map stipulates that nations must come up with new binding emissions cuts during the Copenhagen summit in 2009 to replace the Kyoto Protocol.

The protocol requires 36 wealthy nations to each cut 5 percent of their emissions by 2012. But apart from the eastern bloc countries, most are on a pace that will not reach anywhere close to the target by the deadline.

Dino said the President would stop by in Kuala Lumpur to attend the Developing Eight meeting (D8) on Thursday next week before flying to Hokkaido.

Comments (0) | Post comment

A | A | A |