Took place from to 6 to 17 December 2004
My summary:
The ENB summary:
UNFCCC link; http://unfccc.int/meetings/buenos_aires_dec_2004/meeting/6338.php
The 2004 United Nations Climate Change Conference took place between December 6 and December 17, 2004 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The conference included the 10th Conference of the Parties (COP10) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The parties discussed the progress made since the first United Nations Climate Change Conference ten years ago and its future challenges, with special emphasis on climate change mitigation and adaptation. To promote developing countries better adapt to climate change, the Buenos Aires Plan of Action[1] was adopted. The parties also began discussing the post-Kyoto mechanism, on how to allocate emission reduction obligation following 2012, when the first commitment period ends.
Australia’s position, action:
Fyfe, M. 2004. Australia goes cool on US Kyoto tactics. Sydney Morning Herald, December 20.
The Howard Government has distanced itself for the first time from the United States’ hardline attempts to stall international action on global warming.
The Environment Minister, Ian Campbell, has made a point of spelling out key differences with the US after years of standing together – as the only two developed nations that have not signed the Kyoto protocol.
American lobbying at a United Nations climate change conference, described as “atrocious” by Australian environment groups at the meeting, prompted the Government to clarify its policy.
Senator Campbell said Australia did not agree with the US stance against future greenhouse gas targets nor its claim that economic growth and technology innovations will be the only answer to reducing heat-trapping emissions.
“The difference between the US and Australia is that we are prepared to engage in a new agreement [post Kyoto] as long as it is comprehensive,” Senator Campbell said from London, on his way home from the UN conference in Buenos Aires.
“But a new agreement will have to include the US and the developing world,” he added.
Greenpeace’s Ark made an appearance…
marchudson.net 