Sir, - As has been reported in your newspaper, no progress has been made towards effective international agreement to prevent dangerous climate change, as the final round of inter-governmental negotiations before December's Kyoto Climate Summit ended in deadlock. The responsibility for the continued stalemate lies firmly with the governments of the United States and Japan - representing only 6 per cent of the world's population - which refuse to commit themselves to significant reductions in emissions of climate-changing gases, despite increasing scientific evidence that climate change is already happening.
The best hope for a breakthrough now lies with governments in a position to influence the United States. The Irish Government must raise political pressure on President Clinton and Prime Minister Hashimoto to agree to significant cuts in emissions by 2005. The US's refusal to commit itself to significant cuts in emissions follows a vociferous multi-million dollar campaign by US auto and oil companies, including Shell Oil, Exxon, Mobil, Ford and General Motors, to undermine effective action to prevent dangerous climate change. Despite overwhelming public support in the US for action, President Clinton looks set to go down in history as the president who condemned the world to climate hell because he lacks the courage or conviction to stand up to the vested interests of the US fossil fuel lobby.
Earthwatch believes that the prospect of failure at the Kyoto summit will fuel an attempt by Irish industry - and possibly the government - to win a long-fingering of existing EU commitments to reduce COs2] and greenhouse gas emissions to 15 per cent below 1990 levels. To postpone action on climate change now is to fail to grasp a crucial opportunity in a period of boom to redirect the Irish economy towards sustainability, i.e. to "decouple" emissions from economic growth.
However, if the Kyoto summit is anything like the recent Earth Summit in June 1997, there will be a flurry for all of a week, and then the media will collectively lapse into "business as usual". Earthwatch believes a proper open debate in the media is the key to raising public awareness and mobilising support for moving towards sustainable development.
We urge the media, in advance of, and long after the forthcoming summit, to adequately address the potentially devastating effects of climate change, as well as exploring and evaluating the implications of sustainable development in all economic sectors. Those who are blocking a successful outcome - the richest countries in the world, egged along by transnational corporations - are literally holding the entire Earth community to ransom. That, surely, is news. - Yours, etc.,
Earthwatch, Bantry, Co Cork.