Global emissions-cutting accord will hit APEC economies: report

New York (Platts)--14Dec2004

A new report by an Australian research institute predicts that the economies
of the so-called APEC countries of the Pacific Rim will be hit hardest by the
Kyoto Protocol on climate change. The report, released Tuesday by the
Australian APEC Study Centre at Monash University, finds that a number of the
programs and mechanisms envisioned under the protocol, which are aimed at
reducing greenhouse gas emissions, are unlikely to be utilized in the region,
and are generally not commercially feasible. 

Instead, it predicts that East Asian economies face the risk of lower economic 

growth as they struggle to cut emissions in an environment in which nuclear power 

is the only viable alternative to fossil fuels. The pressure on these economies 

to cut emissions will come, in part, from EU countries which are "restricting trade 

with countries that do not meet its environmental standards." But the report says
that the grounds "are weak" for the EU to argue in favor of such restrictions
under international law.

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