Distinguished President, Minister Ohki
Dear colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

We are here to pursue a global objective. We are here to give life to a dormant Convention.

Five years ago, Brazil hosted the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. A global partnership ensued, a partnership with common but differentiated responsibilities.

But today, the Convention`s implementation by developed countries has been nothing less than disappointing.

Indeed, with a few notable exceptions, Annex I Parties will not comply with their commitment to return to the 1990 emissions level by the year 2000.

And in fact, the first Conference of the Parties in Berlin in 1995 found indeed that a mere stabilization objective was not adequate and that emission reductions targets should be set for the years 2005, 2010 and 2020.

The negotiating process which is to culminate here in Kyoto, was established to prepare a Protocol with those objectives, and we still expect a successful conclusion of this exercise in the next two days, in spite of the reiterated advancement of the same vague promises that we heard before.

In order to advance the Conference`s goals, Brazil proposed that a direct link be established between the cause of climate change - the anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases above their pre-industrial levels, and their consequence - the change in climate as measured by the increase in temperature of the planet. This will be studied in the near future.

Mister President,

This is an essential condition for a fair sharing of the burden among all Parties to the Convention, in proportion to their relative responsibilities for the increase in temperature and mean sea level.

Confidence can only be built at this stage if the reductions agreed to here actually take place and are verified over a reasonable period of time.

Indeed, the differentiation of responsibilities for global warming has a time dimension, and developing countries should not be required to establish targets for themselves before Annex I countries` deeds show that they are fulfilling the reduction commitments that they adopt here.

As regards developing countries, the climate change Convention does contain commitments for them, the so-called non-Annex I countries.

The Berlin Mandate only calls for the non-Annex I countries to continue to advance their implementation of the Convention`s goals.

As far as policies and measures are concerned, non-Annex I Parties` efforts towards the mitigation of climate change are already probably even greater than those adopted by Annex I countries.

We and the Group of 77 and China came up with an innovative proposal: that of the establishment of a clean development fund that would allow us to grow along a cleaner path than the developed countries were able to adopt. This is in the global interest of all countries.

The Clean Development Fund, according to the Brazilian proposal, would be established with resources provided by Annex I countries in proportion to their degree of non-compliance with their own emission targets.

It is especially important, in that respect, that the fund not be used as a loophole by Annex I countries to avoid emission reductions. Further efforts should be made, therefore, to explore the possibilities of trading emissions among themselves, in order to keep to their reduction targets.

A lot has been said this morning on trying to maintain credibility. Scientific credibility, and commitment. In fact, credibility is the central issue.

We must all start the ball rolling. However, this is first and foremost the responsibility of the developed countries. We are already on board, but will be prepared to accept new commitments in the future only when the existing ones are truly observed.

Thank you.