Tiempo Climate Newswatch

The United States government has announced that it is ready to accept binding obligations on greenhouse gas emissions. Describing the presumption that the United States was only interested in setting voluntary emissions targets as "a myth," James Connaughton, who chairs the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said that "we are prepared to join in a binding international agreement, if that agreement includes the major economies including major developing economies."

Critics have repeatedly accused the United States of using the involvement of the major developing nations as a blocking tactic. "It isn't going to happen," said Stephan Singer of WWF. "Why should they [China and India] do something when the United States has done nothing for the last eight years?" In what may prove a significant development, Connaughton noted that it would be acceptable if China and India adopted "a series of goals" sector by sector, rather than an economy-wide goal. It is "highly likely," though, that the United States will accept a single national target. Daniel Price, assistant to President George W Bush for international economic affairs, said that any commitment would be part of a global agreement, which could be announced at the time of the G8 summit in July.

The impact of climate change on fisheries represents an "emerging catastrophe of an unprecedented scale," according to Christian Nellemann of GRID-Arendal. Nellemann is chief editor of a new report from the United Nations Environment Programme on the state of the world's fisheries. "Efforts in the next two decades will determine the lives of hundreds of millions for centuries ahead," he continued. The number of marine dead zones, where oxygen is deficient, has risen from 149 in 2003 to over 200 in 2006, mostly in coastal waters.

The report, In Dead Water, warns that climate change could slow down ocean currents, which maintain water quality, nutrient cycling and the life-cycles of marine life in more than three-quarters of the world's fishing grounds. Higher sea-surface temperatures and ocean acidity threaten coral reefs, which are major fish nurseries. "In developed countries, the degradation of traditional fishing grounds will have commercial effects on the fishing industry sector and fleets," said Stefan Hain of the World Conservation Monitoring Centre. "The effects in developing countries and SIDS [ Small Island Developing States] will be more direct, that is, on coastal communities and populations, which depend on marine resources for sustenance and livelihoods."

The United Nations is considering revising its rules on Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects after evidence of attempts to take excessive profits. "This is a billion-euro market and attracts people not only interested in the environment but in the money," said Lex de Jonge from the Dutch Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment, who is vice-chair of the CDM Executive Board.

The problem is that projects are being put forward that would be very profitable even without the additional CDM revenue. The aim of the CDM is remove barriers, such as a lack of awareness of appropriate technologies, and to support projects that would not have been profitable otherwise. While it was unlikely that very profitable projects would be excluded a priori, one possibility would be to exclude, in some cases, new installations where the latest energy-saving technologies could easily be implemented, de Jonge said.