ENB @ COP-5: Photos and RA of last day's side-events

Friday, 5 November

Kids at COP

German school children meet with COP-5 President Szyszko and UNFCCC Executive Secretary, Zammit Cutajar, before the closing Plenary. The children presented drawings depicting their visions of a healthy environment.

UNFCCC press conference
The COP-5 President, Szyszko (Poland), addressed a press briefing after the close of the COP. From left to right: SBSTA Chair Harald Dovland, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Michael Zammit Cutajar, COP-5 President Jan Szyszko, and SBI Chair John Ashe

German NGO press conference
Deutscher Naturschutzring (DNR), a German umbrella organization of environmental NGOs, held a press conference in reaction to Canada's proposal that nuclear energy could be an important instrument in mitigating CO2 emissions. Helmut Röscheisen, DNR, said it was necessary to make clear that nuclear energy should not be used to mitigate CO2 emissions and that it would create an obstacle to and provide a disincentive for pursuing new energy policies. Röscheisen is pictured her with Wolfgang Kühr of the Bundesverband Bürgerinitiativen Umweltschutz (BBU), a citizens group. Some EU countries, including Finland and the UK supported Canada's proposal regarding the use of nuclear energy, while Germany came out in opposition to Canada's proposal. He outlined the New Energy Policy for Germany that has German NGO support and identified three pillars of the policy: Energy efficiency programs: contractors would advise citizens to use existing energy sources more efficiently and the money saved would go to the contractors so the amount paid by consumers would end up being the same Co-generation: a combination of electricity and power heating from gas, which emits less CO2 Renewable energy: promotion of renewable energy sources through such schemes as raising the price per each unit of electricity used by a penny and using the extra income to promote renewable energy use Röscheisen said the German Minister for the Economy supported the use of the "ecopenny" as a means to promote renewable energy use. He hoped that by 2020, 50% of electricity in Germany would be generated by renewable energy sources. He said that delegates at COP-6 must reject the proposal to use nuclear energy in mitigating CO2 releases. For more information, contact dnr-bonn@t-online.de or visit http://www.dnr.de
Stop hot air - start early JI
Tobias Koch, Climate Policy Analyst with the Centre for Energy Policy (CEP) in the Russian Federation, presented a proposal for early Joint Implementation with the Russian Federation. This requires capacity building at the state level, strong national communications to support public education, and a plan to move forward in the area of certification for multilateral emissions trading. Koch believes that Russia needs capacity building at the state level, and ideally that would take the form of a strong state institution to deal with complex Kyoto Protocol questions. Such an institution would consist of climate change experts and environmental policy developers. Koch goes on to suggest that this structure could also double as a one-stop investment service point to effectively respond to economic stimulation and political collaboration. Russian Climate Change http://www.climate.ru/ Climate Change Germany http://www.emissions.de/
Japan prepared to ratify Kyoto Protocol ahead of United States
The Japanese delegation held a press conference following the close of COP-5. Speakers said the Conference was successful in that it provided the roadmap to COP-6. They credited the High-level segment with providing the political momentum. Members of the Japanese Delegation said that Japan supported ratification of the Protocol by 2002 and in response to questions about ratification without the United States, said that Japan hoped that COP-6 would provide the necessary conditions for the US to ratify, but that Japan was quite prepared to ratify the Protocol even if the US did not. Such a scenario, however, was not the most desirable.

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