By Kim Se-jeong
Staff Reporter
Korea can play a bridging role between the developing and developed countries in global efforts to slow down climate change, according to the head of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the U.N. convention who stopped by Korea en route to Guam, told reporters Tuesday, ``Korea is no longer a developing country, and can play a bridging role between developing and developed nations.''
His remarks were an echo of the Korean climate change ambassador, Chung Rae-kwon, who had proposed Korea's bridging role at a U.N. climate change meeting in Ghana in August.
The Korean government announced it would come up with plans for Greenhouse Gas Mission Reduction 2020 by next year, for which Boer praised Korea. ``This will be a very important contribution to the international agreement next year,'' in Copenhagen, Denmark, where an aspiring post-Kyoto Protocol agreement is to be struck.
Korea is one of few countries outside the 37 industrialized nations under the Kyoto Protocol, talking about a national goal after its expiration in 2012.
The protocol requires industrialized nations to cut emissions by at least an average of five percent below the 1990s level by 2012.
Korea has remained a non-binding participant in emission cuts. But pressure to do more has risen as Korea's greenhouse gas emissions have increased ― now Korea is the 10th largest gas emitter among member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Boer insisted industrialized nations should show more leadership.
Especially, the United States, which demanded legally binding restrictions on fast-growing economies such as China and India during the Bali Climate Change Conference in December last year, must show stronger leadership to move forward, he said.
``When the United States engages, Japan will act,'' and other European countries will follow suit, he said.
He acknowledged the U.S. setback in the climate change negotiation as one of the great challenges.
However, he remained optimistic about coming to an agreement on the post-Kyoto Protocol framework next year. ``We have many obstacles, but the political will is there.''
The UNFCCC was an international environmental treaty adopted in 1992 with the aim of stabilizing greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere at a level that would avert dangerous consequences.