The United States, China and four Asia-Pacific nations have announced a partnership to cut greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, but environmental groups dismissed the plan as unworkable. Australia, India, Japan and South Korea joined Thursday with the world's top two polluters in presenting the initiative, which they said can help reduce gas emissions while still promoting economic growth. Four of the six nations are major coal producers, and environmentalists were quick to accuse the group of trying to get around the Kyoto Protocol, saying the plan has no targets or deadlines and will not be legally binding. ``We are not trying to detract from Kyoto and the commitments that a number of countries have made under the Kyoto Protocol,'' Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said at the announcement in Vientiane, Laos. ``This partnership will complement and not replace the Kyoto Protocol.'' Downer and fellow foreign ministers are to work out the details of the non-binding compact at a meeting in Australia in November - just before the next United Nations conference on global climate change in Canada. The United States and Australia are the sole leading industrialized nations that have refused to join Kyoto, the main world treaty on global warming, arguing it is economically unfair because it does not require cuts in gas emissions from developing nations such as China and India. ``The fairness and effectiveness of this proposal will be superior to the Kyoto Protocol,'' Australian Prime Minister John Howard said in Sydney. His country is the No1 exporter of coal. ``The key here is to maintain the flexibility,'' Deputy US Secretary of State Robert Zoellick said at the unveiling of the initiative on the sidelines of an Asian security forum in Vientiane. The agreement will ``open up the possibilities for developing, deploying and transferring'' technologies including nuclear, wind and solar power, he said. In what Zoellick called a ``vision statement,'' the six nations pledged to promote ``cost-effective, cleaner technologies and practices through concrete and substantial cooperation'' but offered little in the way of hard detail. Greenpeace spokeswoman Catherine Fitzpatrick said: ``The suggested scheme is, unlike Kyoto, a voluntary scheme, and all evidence shows that voluntary schemes do not work. ``Skulking around making secretive, selective deals will not accomplish'' a reduction in emissions. ``No doubt the [Australian] government has been cooking this scheme up for a while to cover up for their failure to ratify Kyoto, and to try to prove that developing countries are abandoning Kyoto,'' she said. ``This is not the case. Unlike Australia, China, India and South Korea have all ratified Kyoto and are moving forward to implement their commitments.'' The Kyoto accord legally commits 39 industrial nations and territories to trim their output of six greenhouse gases - especially carbon dioxide, the byproduct of burning fossil fuels such as coal and oil. The gases trap heat in the atmosphere and are blamed for global warming. Friends of the Earth Australia said the proposed alliance ``does not address the immediate need to cut greenhouse pollution by at least 60 percent by 2050. ``By staying out of the main game - the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gases - the US and Australia continue to be open to criticism that they are only looking after their narrowly defined interests at the expense of the rest of the world,'' said FOE spokesman Cam Walker. The leader of the opposition Australian Greens party, Bob Brown, dismissed the new agreement as ``a coal pact'' involving four of the world's biggest coal producers - China, the US, India and Australia. It is designed to ``defend the coal industry in an age where it's the biggest industry contributing deliberately to the global warming threat to Australia and the planet,'' he said. Calling it a ``Machiavellian pact,'' Clive Hamilton, the executive director of the Australia Institute, an environmental think-tank, said the main beneficiaries of the initiative ``will be Australian coal companies, some of the world's biggest greenhouse polluters. Study after study has shown that voluntary agreements such as those foreshadowed in this treaty do not work.'' In Geneva, the head of the WWF's climate change program, Jennifer Morgan, said: ``A deal on climate change that doesn't limit pollution is the same as a peace plan that allows guns to be fired.'' AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Molinos de viento daneses.



Los Estados Unidos, China, India, Japón, Corea del Sur y Australia han formado un grupo que busca reducir las emisiones de gases causantes del calentamiento global. El tratado fue suscrito luego de aproximadamente un año de negociaciones secretas. La creación de la ''Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate'' ("Asociación de Asia - Pacífico para el Desarrollo y un Ambiente Limpios") no contiene - por ahora - metas fijas de reducción de emisiones.

Varios grupos ambientalistas han condenado el tratado al afirmar que, al no ser vinculante, no sustituye al Protocolo de Kioto, al que Estados Unidos y Australia rehúsan adherirse. China e India, entre otros 140 países, ratificaron el tratado de Kioto, pero no han trazado metas de reducción de emisiones de gases por su estatus de países en desarrollo. En contraste, el Protocolo de Kioto, tiene la firme meta de reducir las emisiones un 5,2% de los niveles de 1990 antes de 2010.

Para responder las críticas, el canciller australiano Alexander Downer declaró: "No estamos intentando restarle méritos a Kioto y a los compromisos que un número de países ha hecho bajo el Protocolo de Kioto. Esta sociedad complementará mas no reemplazará el Protocolo de Kioto".

John Howard, primer ministro australiano, añadió que su país no buscará tecnologías renovables sino que se concentrará en la reducción de emisiones de gases del uso de hulla. Australia es el mayor exportador mundial de hulla, y Howard dijo que "Australia no debería castigarse irrazonablemente al decir, en efecto, que vamos a cambiar el uso de combustibles en los que Australia tiene una ventaja natural".

Sin embargo, parte del trato incluye la creación de un fondo para investigar tecnologías energéticas más limpias, incluyendo el uso más eficiente de los combustibles fósiles y de tecnologías renovables, así como métodos para atrapar y almacenar gases de efecto invernadero en lugar de enviarlos a la atmósfera. Se espera que esto ayude a China, India y otros países en desarrollo a adoptar soluciones energéticas más limpias.

Los detalles serán desarrollados en una reunión de los seis países firmantes en noviembre, poco antes de la próxima cumbre de la ONU sobre cambio climático.

Los países firmantes creen que el acuerdo es más justo y efectivo que el Protocolo de Kioto. No obstante, un vocero de Greenpeace declaró: "El esquema sugerido es, a diferencia del de Kioto, voluntario, y toda la evidencia muestra que los esquemas voluntarios no funcionan. Esconderse para realizar acuerdos secretos y selectivos no logrará una reducción de las emisiones".

El Panel Intergubernamental del Cambio Climático de las Naciones Unidas ha advertido que las temperaturas en todo el mundo podrían subir entre 1,4 y 5,8 grados centígrados para el año 2100. Estados Unidos y China son los mayores productores de dióxido de carbono (uno de los principales gases de invernadero) del mundo.