Compromise needed as Kyoto Protocol to expire |
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/03/29/compromise-needed-kyoto-protocol-expire.html
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak’s special envoy for climate change, Han Seung-soo, is in town for three days after visiting India and Singapore as part of a trip in Asia. He shares his views with The Jakarta Post’s Mustaqim Adamrah. Here are excerpts of the interview.
Question: You plan to meet President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Wednesday. Are you also planning to lobby him for South Korea’s nomination as host of the Conference of the Parties (COP) in 2012?
Answer: Well, it’s not lobbying, I’m the special envoy of the president. There are many issues that our president wants to convey ... as many times they have already met. President Yudhoyono came to Korea for a G20 Summit [last year], and President Lee Myung-bak came to Bali [in 2007]. So our relations are growing very fair.
The Indonesian President has announced that Indonesia pledges to reduce emissions by 26 percent by 2020. What is South Korea’s position?
In our case, in December 2009 at the time of the 15th COP in Copenhagen, President Lee Myung-bak announced that Korea was going to reduce emissions by 30 percent by 2020. Of course, Korean industry’s business community was not happy with that because it means costs for them.
How does your government communicate this policy with business players?
They know that this will be a cost but in the long run this will be an opportunity because through this they will be more efficient. By increasing efficiency, they become more competitive in the international market.
And if we refuse to change, we will lose the opportunity.
Also, it’s not only reducing emissions. What we are doing to deal with climate change is that we are changing the past paradigm of growth ... profit oriented, high carbon energy ... to low carbon and quality green growth.
Do you think that developed countries must contribute more than developing countries in emissions cuts?
Of course. It’s because the principle of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is the principle of common responsibilities.
There’s a reason why we have high emissions. It’s due to the carbon dioxide emissions created by developed countries due to the Industrial Revolution.
But, whatever we do, we together will suffer because business as usual means the world average temperature will increase by 24 percent.
In 150 years, two-thirds or three-quarters of the world temperature increase was due to the Industrial Revolution. We cannot keep going like this.
So, they have to be responsible, but that doesn’t mean that developing countries do not have any responsibilities in the future. We do have our share of responsibility in dealing with future problems.
The international community seems to be failing in making developed countries commit to the Kyoto Protocol. If South Korea becomes the host of the COP next year, is the country ready to push developed countries to commit to another type of Kyoto Protocol?
Usually, when governments agree [on something], it has to be worked through a ratification process in each parliament, which takes two to three years.
If we succeed in finding an alternative to replace the Kyoto Protocol, had it been at the time of the COP in Copenhagen, even then it was too late.
So, I think to replace the Kyoto Protocol with another type of Kyoto Protocol may be very difficult at this juncture.
Our position is to try to find a middle ground between [developing countries] and [developed countries]. If we find the middle ground and it is done by developed and developing countries then there will be a great contribution to solving the problem of climate change.
There is a growing concern that the next COP in South Africa will end up with no concrete action. How do you respond to that?
I think that the South African government will try to make the COP a success because the president, [Jacob] Zuma, is co-chair of the UN high level global sustainability panel. He himself is aware of the issue and he has very good staff at his office
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