APEC leaders sign an agreement on climate change

Asia-Pacific leaders have reached an agreement on climate change, revealing an ambitious, long-term goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, the agreement does not provide specific commitments.

China and the US - two of the world's largest emitters - are among the 21 countries that signed the agreement. Australian Prime Minister John Howard called it "an extremely important milestone" towards an international agreement.

"The world needs to slow down, stop and then reverse the rise in greenhouse gas emissions," said the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. into a non-binding goal: to reduce the amount of energy used to produce a dollar of gross domestic product at least 25% by 2030.

Leaders also called for an increase in forest coverage in the Asia-Pacific region by at least 20 million hectares by 2020. They agreed that greenhouse gas reduction strategies should reflect differences in cashew Socio-economic conditions of each country.

However, environmentalists say that this statement is only formal. Greenpeace group spokesman said the deal was like a Howard political advertisement because he did not support binding targets for developed countries.

Proponents of the statement said the statement laid the foundation for the UN's annual climate change summit in December in Bali, Indonesia. This conference will seek an agreement to replace the Kyoto protocol that expires in 2012.

The statement is considered a trade-off between rich and rich APEC economies. 21 APEC members, including Russia and Japan, emit about 60% of the greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. Developing countries, led by China and Indonesia, have objected to every language that binds them to binding goals, believing that will hinder economic development. They think that developed countries should take more responsibility for climate change.

Minh Son