Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06PARIS2130
2006-03-31 17:09:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Paris
Cable title:  

UNESCO: PREPARATIONS FOR JULY 2006 VILNIUS

Tags:  AORC SCUL KSCA SENV RS XG UNESCO 
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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PARIS 002130 

SIPDIS

FROM USMISSION UNESCO PARIS
STATE FOR IO/UNESCO CRISTINA NOVO
STATE FOR OES SHIRA YOFFE, EUR MATTHEW BRYZA AND
EUR/SNEC AMB MANN
STATE FOR DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR DAS HOFFMAN
STATE FOR DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR NPS STEPHEN MORRIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: AORC SCUL KSCA SENV RS XG UNESCO
SUBJECT: UNESCO: PREPARATIONS FOR JULY 2006 VILNIUS
WORLD HERITAGE MEETING INCLUDE EXPERTS' DISCUSSION ON
CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT ON SITES

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PARIS 002130

SIPDIS

FROM USMISSION UNESCO PARIS
STATE FOR IO/UNESCO CRISTINA NOVO
STATE FOR OES SHIRA YOFFE, EUR MATTHEW BRYZA AND
EUR/SNEC AMB MANN
STATE FOR DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR DAS HOFFMAN
STATE FOR DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR NPS STEPHEN MORRIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: AORC SCUL KSCA SENV RS XG UNESCO
SUBJECT: UNESCO: PREPARATIONS FOR JULY 2006 VILNIUS
WORLD HERITAGE MEETING INCLUDE EXPERTS' DISCUSSION ON
CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT ON SITES


1. Summary: In preparation for the July 8-16 2006
meeting of the World Heritage Committee in Vilnius,
invited experts met at UNESCO headquarters to discuss
the impact of climate change on World Heritage sites;
(Their recommendations para 5). The meeting was held
at the request of the July 2005 session of the World
Heritage Committee. There was interest on the part of
a couple of members of the media in a U.S. position
paper -- submitted in advance to the World Heritage
Center, but not delivered at the meeting -- by U.S.
expert Interior Department DAS Paul Hoffman expressing
U.S. concerns regarding UNESCO's appropriate role in
areas involving climate issues and World Heritage
sites. Also in preparation for the upcoming Vilnius
meeting, the chair of the World Heritage Committee
convened an informal meeting to discuss the agenda at
Vilnius; the chair (Lithuania) also used the meeting to
express her concern about Russia's plans to build a
pipeline near the Lake Baikal World Heritage site. End
Summary.

Experts Meet on Climate Change and World Heritage
-------------- --------------


2. In preparation for the July 2006 World Heritage
Committee meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania, the World
Heritage Center organized an experts' only meeting
March 16-17 2006 to examine the impact of climate
change on World Heritage Sites. The U.S. was
represented at the meeting by experts Paul Hoffman,
Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior, and Daniel
Fagre, U.S. Geological Survey. Ambassador Oliver and
USUNESCO Science Officer also attended the meeting.


3. This meeting was held at the request of the 29th
session (July 2005) of the World Heritage Committee, in
order to explore the appropriate role of World Heritage
with regard to climate change. Decision 29 COM 7B.a
set out specific goals to guide the experts' meeting

and its report back to the Committee, although there
remained some confusion about the Meeting's purpose
with respect to the Petition to include four World
Heritage Sites on the List of World Heritage in Danger
(Note: A subsequent petition was submitted in February
2006, suggesting that Waterton-Glacier International
Peace Park be included on the List of World Heritage in
Danger as well. End Note.)


4. The meeting included a number of presentations
about the impact of climate change on both natural and
cultural sites. A presentation by Martin Parry, of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, suggested
that certain climatic trends, such as average global
temperature rise, potential sea level rise, potential
increased severities of droughts complicated by
increased rainfall and storm intensities, were very
likely to occur over the next 100 years even if GHG
emissions were reduced at twice the rate articulated in
the Kyoto Protocol.


5. The participating experts had significant
discussions about the appropriate role of the World
Heritage Convention with regard to the issue of climate
change. The experts arrived at consensus, with the
noted exception of one of the climate change
petitioning NGO representatives. The consensus
suggested that the appropriate role of World Heritage
should be guided by the following principles:

World Heritage should adopt the UN Framework Convention
on Climate Change terminology with respect to
"mitigations" meaning reduction in GHG emissions or
carbon sequestration and "adaptations" meaning efforts
to reduce, eliminate, adjust to, or adapt to the
impacts that result from climate change;

The larger issue of GHG emission mitigations remains
the responsibility of the UN Framework Convention on
Climate Change and the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change;

World Heritage Sites should monitor climate change
impacts and coordinate those efforts on a thematic as
well as regional basis;

Site managers should conduct monitoring and research on
climate change impacts to World Heritage Sites;

Site managers should carry out activities that will
facilitate the adaptation of a site to climate change
impacts;

Site managers and the World Heritage Centre should
closely coordinate all these efforts with other
conservation conventions and organizations;

Site managers and State parties should share all
information with the World Heritage Center and UNESCO
which would serve as the clearinghouse for climate
change impacts and adaptations information; and

UNESCO and the World Heritage Centre should share
climate change impact information with the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change and the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change to inform their policy making
process on mitigations and adaptations.


6. Before the meeting opened, one of our Secretariat
contacts said that she and her colleagues were striving
to ensure a "low profile" for these proceedings to
ensure that they remained at a technical level. The
consensus at which the experts arrived will not be made
public until six weeks before the Vilnius meeting,
along with all the other documents for the meeting.
Members of Permanent delegations that did not have
experts participating were told that the Meeting was
"closed". However, the Ecological and Earth Sciences
Division of the Natural Sciences Sector seized upon the
opportunity afforded by the World Heritage meeting on
Climate Change to organize a meeting on Bio-Carbon
Sequestration immediately preceding the WHC meeting,
inviting many of the same participants. The carbon
meeting, organized in partnership with the NGO Pro-
Natura, was an opportunity to discuss ways to enhance
efforts to address the potential reduction of
biological sources of green house gas (GHG) emissions
by reducing deforestation, increasing reforestation,
sequestration of carbon, and establishing partnerships
with the private sector. This meeting -- not organized
under any specific delegation of authority, and lacking
the authority to set official policy for any
organization -- issued no communique.

Ambassadors Meet to Prepare Vilnius Agenda
--------------


7. On March 23, Ambassador Oliver attended a meeting
of Permanent Delegates to prepare for the Vilnius
Meeting. In discussing the agenda, Ambassador Oliver
succeeded in convincing the other participants that the
time allotted to discussion of the administration and
financing of the World Heritage Center should be
expanded considerably. The U.S also argued that the
issues of universal value and geographical distribution
should be discussed before the Committee decides which
new sites should be inscribed on the World Heritage
List. This suggestion was not accepted, as many
permanent delegates argued that high-level
representatives of their countries - who plan to attend
the meeting to press for their sites' inclusion -- have
already made travel plans based on the agenda as
currently configured.


8. Much of discussion was devoted to the potentially
negative impact of a proposed oil pipeline that would
be built near Lake Baikal, Russia, inscribed on the
World Heritage List in 1996. The current Chairperson
of the World Heritage Committee, Ina Marciulionyte (the
Lithuanian Ambassador to UNESCO),reported to the
meeting that she had written a letter to Russian
President Putin protesting these plans; she said that
she had asked UNESCO DG Matsuura to write a similar
letter, but that he had not committed himself to doing
so. Amb. Marciulionyte also evoked the possibility of
holding an extraordinary session of the World Heritage
Committee to discuss this issue - which would probably
take place sometime after the July 2006 World Heritage
Committee in Vilnius - given the complexity of the
issues involved. She stressed, though, that opponents
of the Russian plan did not want to block the pipeline,
but change its routing to avoid any potential harm to
Lake Baikal.
Oliver