Howard to persuade APEC leaders to accept post-Kyoto pact

MELBOURNE: By agreeing to a "post-Kyoto framework", Australian Prime Minister John Howard will push APEC leaders to address the crucial issue of climate change with a long-term global goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Describing the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation conference as "undeniably the most important international meeting ever to have been held in Australia", Howard moved to pre-empt criticism that the APEC leaders' meeting had failed on climate change before it had even begun, 'The Australian' newspaper said on Monday.

Howard initially proposed climate change as a topic for the APEC world leaders' agenda, but yesterday he conceded he had no hope of forcing APEC's 21 member nations -particularly the developing countries- to agree to binding emission targets.

Opposition Labor party leader Kevin Rudd has warned that APEC "had no future" if the leaders failed to agree to firm emission targets.

Ahead of the arrival of Chinese President Hu Jintao and the arrival tomorrow of US President George Bush, he said other crucial issues, such as trade liberalisation and security, would form key elements of the APEC agenda.

He said the APEC summit, bringing together countries that account for 56 per cent of the world economy and 40 per cent of its population, provided an "unrivalled" opportunity for bilateral exchanges.

Howard said he expected security issues to feature prominently in his bilateral discussions with the US President. Security  is also likely to feature in discussions between Bush and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Howard is likely to meet nearly all the leaders at bilateral talks, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose visit will be the first to Australia by a Russian leader. He will also host the first heads-of-government trilateral security meeting with the US and Japan on Saturday.

The APEC summit began on Sunday with meetings of officials and a cruise on Sydney Harbour for business delegates.

The intensive security clampdown in Sydney was essential to ensure the safety of the APEC summit.

Twelve Greenpeace protesters were arrested in Newcastle on Sunday for painting a slogan on a coal ship and two people were detained in Sydney for taking photos.

Launching USD 70.7 million in funding for three new climate change measures yesterday, Howard said a "naive" focus on binding emission targets would set back the development of an international framework by years.

The draft APEC agreement suggests a 25 per cent reduction by 2030 in "energy intensity" - reducing the amount of energy consumed for each task, such as improving the fuel efficiency of cars.

Howard on Sunday announced seed funding of USD five million for the Asia-Pacific Network for Energy Technology, and an extra USD 50 million commitment for the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate and USD 15.7 million for the Asia-Pacific Forestry Skills and Capacity Building Program.
    
Howard also released the latest report from the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics, which focuses on clean technology development and forest management as measures to slow the growth in greenhouse gas emissions in the APEC region.