THE Minister for the Environment, Mr Howlin, said he wants a strong declaration" on measures to deal with global warming from ministers attending the second Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Climate Change.
After 10 days of tortuous negotiations at official level, during which little progress was made, some 55 ministers from countries with very different perspectives on the problem were expected to work through the night, if necessary, in an effort to reach a consensus by lunch time today.
With Ireland holding the Presidency of the European Union, Mr Howlin is playing a key role in brokering a compromise between countries prepared to commit themselves to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and those such as the oil producing states which are still holding out.
The task has been made somewhat easier by the changed position of the US delegation, headed by Mr Timothy Wirth, Under Secretary of State, who said it is now prepared to urge other countries to adopt by the end of next year "realistic, verifiable and binding" targets to reverse the trend towards global warming.
Greenpeace, which has been closely monitoring the Geneva talks, said the US announcement would "revitalise" discussion at a ministerial round table conference yesterday afternoon, leaving Australia, Japan and the OPEC countries "isolated in their attempts to obstruct concrete action to cut carbon dioxide emissions".
The key issue, for Greenpeace and others who favour progress on dealing with climate change, is whether the final ministerial declaration will specifically refer to the need to contain the rise in average global temperature below 2 degrees Celsius, thereby avoiding some of the worst effects of global warming.
"It's essential that ministers now inject urgency to this meeting and lead us to a successful outcome (which would) break the stalemate between fossil fuel interests such as the OPEC countries and Australia and those that want a survival package for their nations and the planet", Greenpeace said.
In his eight minute address to the conference yesterday on behalf of the EU, Mr Howlin said developing and implementing an international policy, response to the global environmental threat" of climate change was "a critical test of our commitment to sustainable development".
While the EU was on course to meet the Rio Earth Summit target of returning its overall carbon dioxide emissions to 1990 levels by 2000, he said it was "concerned" that, the process of stabilising CO2 emissions worldwide was "not advancing as needed to achieve its intended objective".
The fact that several OECD member states notably the US, which accounts for over 20 per cent of global CC9 emissions would fail to meet the target did not augur well for their ability to implement further cuts after 2000, he told The Irish Times later.
In his speech, Mr Howlin said the EU expected the Geneva conference to endorse the latest report of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IP CC) as "the most comprehensive and authoritative assessment in the science of climate change" and the critical benchmark for greenhouse gas reductions.
"The EU recognises that stabilisation of atmospheric concentrations of CO2 at twice the preindustrial level, that is 550 parts per million, will eventually require global emissions to be less than 50 per cent of current levels" if the rise in global temperatures was to be held below 2 degrees, he said.
As IPCC scientists continue to spell out the dangers of failing to meet this target, ministers and officials carried on negotiating "bracketed text" in the draft final declaration. This is UN speak for matters yet to be agreed, and since there was quite a lot of it, the sessions were expected to be lengthy.
Waiting in the wings, as always, are the lobbyists on both sides of the argument. But given the likely acceptance of the IPCC's latest assessment, those representing oil, coal and motor manufacturing interest in the Global Climate Coalition were left fighting a rear guard action in an effort to protect their position.
