TIEMPO a bulletin on global warming and the Third World issue 7 January 1993 published by the International Institute for Environment and Development (London, UK) and the University of East Anglia (Norwich, UK) with support from the Swedish International Development Authority in association with the Stockholm Environment Institute editorial office: TIEMPO, c/o Mick Kelly, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK (email gn:crunorwich) ******************************************************* A WEATHER EYE ON..... This issue, Weather Eye views the post-Earth Summit landscape, noting a few changes for the better and much that remains the same. RETURN OF THE INC... After a six-month break, the Sixth Session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) was held in Geneva in December 1992. Third World delegates put the case for their own agenda in no uncertain terms, insisting that concern about climate change be placed in the context of social and economic development. The focus of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) on measures which will limit global environmental problems alone was again attacked. Elizabeth Dowdeswell, recently elected as successor to Mostafa Tolba as head of UNEP, defended the GEF objectives, stating that they are global, and therefore affect the whole world. The INC now has a working agenda to follow up the provisions of the Framework Convention on Climate Change and will hold its seventh meeting in New York in March 1993. AND NOW ANOTHER ONE... Meanwhile, progress is being made in the planning of a desertification convention. This follows the agreement to work to this end reached at the Earth Summit after much southern lobbying. The process has begun in the United Nations General Assembly but will be continued by an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for a Desertification Convention. It is hoped that the Convention will be ready by June 1994. Venues for the negotiating meetings proposed by the G-77 group of developing nations provided a source of mild contention. Japan and Australia voiced concern about not only the number of meetings but also the number of different locations: Nairobi, Rome, Geneva, Paris and New York. To which the G-77 representative dryly responded that it was not the Group's intention to undertake a tour of the world but that advantage should be taken of the presence of UN agencies in the various cities. In Weather Eye's view, the convention would probably benefit most if the negotiators were confronted with the reality of desertification, meeting in locations afflicted by the problem. At least there was no argument about the shape of the negotiating table. POLITICAL CHANGE... The Clinton-Gore Administration may well produce a profound shift in US attitudes towards the climate negotiations. President Clinton has stated that he would support a climate change treaty in which the US agrees to stabilize carbon dioxide emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2000 and would give serious consideration to the 20-30% reduction levels [committed to by several other industrial countries]. Meanwhile, Vice President Gore has emphasized that taking action to combat climate change is also an economic imperative. The fact is that cutting carbon dioxide emissions can most readily and effectively be achieved by improving efficiency in every sector of the economy. And improving efficiency means reducing waste, enhancing productivity and profits. Let's hope that the campaign rhetoric has more staying power than Bush's No new taxes. SENSE AND NONSENSE... If it makes sense anyway, we're not going to support it seems to be the contrary message emerging from the various multilateral environmental aid initiatives. In the case of the Global Environment Facility, support is only available to cover the incremental costs of environmental protection activities. This means that measures which make economic sense at the national level without international subsidy cannot be funded, regardless of their benefit to the global environment. Many developing nations may well bias their plans towards activities which fit the GEF requirements. The net effect may well be the widespread adoption of schemes which don't make good economic sense, yet qualify for GEF funding, rather than the pursuit of the most sensible courses of action. For example, promoting geothermal power where improving energy efficiency would be the common-sense strategy. The industrialized nations are reluctant to subsidize the South on a multilateral basis except to the extent that the funding will reduce global environmental problems by encouraging actions which, in their view, would not otherwise happen. It would be ironic if this insistence sabotaged the international effort to curb emissions by focusing undue attention on less effective solutions. FROM THE SUBLIME... The Earth Summit in June 1992 called for a supplement to the International Development Association (IDA), the subsidized loan fund for the lowest income developing countries, to support environmental protection measures. World Bank proposals for the fund the Earth Increment cover renewable energy sources and clean coal technologies but explicitly exclude energy efficiency on the grounds that low-income countries use comparatively little energy for industry, cars, and household purposes. The fact that the best time to ensure high standards of energy conservation is during the construction of industry, transportation systems and so on appears to have escaped the Bank's analysts. Or, maybe, in their view, low-income developing countries are not expected to achieve any significant level of growth. Mind you, given that Ernest Stern of the World Bank has warned that there is serious doubt that the IDA can be maintained at its present level, let alone be increased, the Earth Increment may never materialize. TO... Sir Bernard Ingham, press secretary to former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, has recently been sharing his views on aid and assistance: Nations which cannot feed themselves do not simply need aid. They need a severe dose of colonial rule. -- p [D