APEC is not, strictly speaking, a global organization. It unites just 21 national economies-but those economies include the United States, currently the undisputed economic leader of the world, and China, the country destined one day to take the leader's mantle. Furthermore, the Pacific region, the development of which is APEC's stated goal, accounts for more than half of the world's economic and commercial growth.
There is a lesser known, though no less eloquent, figure: Pacific countries, from the United States to Peru (another APEC country and the host of the next summit), consume 60% of the world's energy-which means that most of the planet's greenhouse gas emissions come from that region. Therefore we should take with the utmost seriousness the main document of the APEC forum and summit. The Sydney Declaration on Climate Change, Energy Security and Clean Development, adopted by the APEC heads of state and governments, lays down the central principle on which to base another, more effective instrument-a protocol or treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
It is an easy and all-too-common practice to use highfalutin words to mask a meeting's failure to produce actions. The Sydney Declaration is not one of these. On the contrary, it is extremely practical. It outlines for the whole world programs APEC has now been implementing for several years. Taking part in these programs are nations that found the Kyoto Protocol unacceptable, including the United States and China.
China, for one, has its own national program to switch industry to low-emission technologies. Impressed by the profitability of implementing new technologies, China's APEC partners have joined the program. The Kyoto Protocol, with the stringent limits it sets, does not suit China and many other countries because it determines targets for reducing emissions, but offers no advice on how to achieve those targets other than slowing economic progress - hardly a constructive suggestion for developing countries.
The Sydney Declaration maps out a strategy of regional programs to implement and invest in new technologies, and forest restoration programs, which help to maintain the ozone layer at relatively safe levels. The declaration also endorses promoting alternative energy sources, including nuclear power. Related programs are available, which all or some of the APEC economies have voluntarily adopted.
As APEC steps up its work in these areas, countries that cannot take part in the programs will see the benefits and try to join, at least partially.
Such is the mechanism of the APEC strategy, whose guiding principles of voluntary participation and economic benefit differ spectacularly from the harsh precepts of the Kyoto Protocol.
It would be wrong to pretend that the world leaders who gathered in Sydney see eye to eye on everything. Yet the summit proved once again that there are spheres in which they are both able and willing to cooperate. U.S.-Russian ABM talks may or may not succeed, and bilateral meetings between Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush in Sydney may, or may not, help resolve that dispute-but Russia and the United States have willingly joined hands within the Sydney Declaration on alternative energy.
A prominent energy exporter, Russia is encouraged to take part in, or observe, projects for new technologies, such as for LNG production, in which it is no leader. It will now be clearer to Russia where the world energy economy is headed. To all appearances, it is not towards increased raw material exports, to which the Russia owes its current prosperity. The prospect of developing civil nuclear industry, on the contrary, is good news for Moscow. Russia and Australia signed a contract on the fringes of the meeting for Australian uranium processing. This, too, is part of the new Pacific and global energy policy.
The Sydney meeting finally determined the venue of the 2012 APEC summit, which will be held in Vladivostok, a major Russian Pacific port. To Russia, this means more than just an opportunity to upgrade the city's tourist and business infrastructure. 2012 is the year the Kyoto Protocol expires, so the Vladivostok summit will almost certainly point out that it was none other than APEC that launched the next chapter in the fight against climate change. The summit will just as certainly look back at what Russia, the host country, has done for the cause in the five years between the Sydney and Vladivostok meetings.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
