UK SLAPS U.S. ON CLIMATE CHANGE, FORECASTS STORMY

UNCLAS USUN NEW YORK 000033 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON ENRG SENV UNCSD UNEP EU UK SUBJECT: UK SLAPS U.S. ON CLIMATE CHANGE, FORECASTS STORMY UN IN 2007 ¶1. UKUN Counselor for Sustainable Development Alistair Fernie addressed the UN NGO Committee on Sustainable Development (a normally neutral organization) at a January 18 panel discussion on "The Economics of Climate Change: The Stern Report." Joined by German scientist Philipp Schmidt-Thome of the Geological Survey of Finland in a standing-room-only UN conference room, Fernie interjected his summary of the Stern Report with frequent and exclusive slaps at U.S. "inaction" on climate change and self-congratulation on EU "leadership." He previewed an aggressive EU climate change strategy at the UN in 2007, with plans to spotlight the subject not only in typical fora such as the General Assembly, ECOSOC, and Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD),but also in the UN Security Council. Fernie noted that Nicholas Stern himself will add to the momentum with a lecture circuit in the U.S. in February, to include a stop at the UN. ¶2. Due to the topical nature of the meeting, Fernie spoke to a sympathetic audience of civil society members, students, interns and UN delegation members. The Sustainable Development NGO, however, did circulate a number of press pieces that offered critical views on such issues as the economic soundness of the core assumptions underlying the Stern Report (e.g. UC Berkeley professor Hal Varian's December 14 New York Times article),as well as doubts (from The Economist) that UK Prime Minister-in-waiting Gordon Brown will actually implement policy prescriptions contained in the Report that Brown himself had commissioned. Offering another dose of realism at the event, the German panelist Schmidt-Thome questioned the efficacy of "pointing fingers" at individual countries, adding that the EU's own record of achievement on climate change is not as impressive as often portrayed. WOLFF