New Study Offers Framework for Consensus on Climate Change at APEC Summit

    SYDNEY, Australia, Sept. 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As the region's
 leaders stand divided on climate change at the Asia-Pacific Economic
 Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Sydney, Australia, a study launched at the
 meeting proposed a new strategy for unified global action.
     The study, released by the U.S.-based NGO World Growth, proposes a
 "Multi- Track" process that would allow countries to develop more
 customized strategies to reduce emissions while preserving economic
 development programs and progress toward eliminating poverty.
     Such a process, the study's author said, could bring the United States,
 China, Japan, Australia, South Korea and other countries of the region
 closer together on a consensus toward how to tackle climate change ahead of
 coming U.N. global talks later this year in Bali, Indonesia.
     "The APEC region is the ideal forum for proposing a new approach," said
 Ambassador Alan Oxley, chairman of World Growth and chairman of the
 national APEC Centre at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and the
 study's author. "The nations at this summit generate more than half of the
 world's man-made greenhouse gases, but are also home to over a billion
 people who live on less than one dollar a day, where greater economic
 development and poverty reduction must continue. They are looking for real
 progress without self harm for the region's people, and that is what the
 Multi-Track process offers."
     Oxley argues that pushing for hard targets when there is no consensus
 on the process for reaching them is a recipe for failure at a time when
 progress is needed. By focusing more on a process model first, Oxley said,
 the APEC region could find greater agreement and consensus and bring new
 momentum to the global effort.
     The study's "Multi-Track" strategy would allow for each nation to
 develop a strategy to tackle climate change that best suits it, giving
 nations more flexibility to reach emission reductions through a variety of
 strategies. This could include Kyoto-styled mandatory cuts, adopting new
 technologies, improving efficient energy consumption, or any combination of
 approaches.
     Unlike proposals which have divided the region, the "Multi-Track" model
 supports a development dimension -- to allow for countries to have
 continued economic growth in order to raise the "bottom billion" out of
 poverty.
     The study's new approach builds on the launch two years ago of the
 Asia- Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate by some of the
 leading APEC economies -- Australia, China, Japan, Korea and the U.S. --
 along with India. Tying these countries closer together on climate change
 could yield greater progress at the global level, Oxley said, especially as
 their interest in a pro-development strategy provides common ground.
     "An APEC regional consensus would be a very good start towards real
 progress," Oxley said. "It could mean a greater chance at achieving
 results."
     FOR MORE BACKGROUND, please visit:
 http://www.worldgrowth.org/issues/environment/
     To read the full study by Ambassador Alan Oxley (including biographical
 information), please visit: http://www.worldgrowth.org/resources/
     About World Growth
     World Growth is a non-profit, non-governmental organization established
 with an educational and charitable mission to expand the education,
 information and other resources available to disadvantaged populations to
 improve their health and economic welfare. At World Growth, we embrace and
 celebrate the new age of globalization and the power of free trade to
 eradicate poverty and improve living conditions for people in the
 developing world. For more information on World Growth, visit
 http://www.worldgrowth.org.
 
 

SOURCE World Growth