East-West Center Research Program Seminar

April 29, 12:00pm - 1:00pm
Manoa Campus, East-West Center

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Global Climate Change: The Growing Role of the Asia-Pacific Region

Toufiq Siddiqi
Adjunct Senior Fellow, East-West Center
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Noon – 1:00 pm
Burns Hall, Room 3012

International negotiations for drafting a successor to the Kyoto Protocol have already commenced, and are expected to be completed by 2009. While the Kyoto Protocol required limitations on greenhouse gas emissions from only the industrialized countries, the vast increases in the emissions from developing countries, particularly in Asia, have led to calls for some commitments from these countries as well in a successor Protocol.

At the heart of the negotiations are issues of equity -- between countries, within countries, and between generations. The presentation will focus on some of these issues, and how the role of the Asia Pacific countries has changed in the years since the Kyoto Protocol was signed. In particular, the trends in emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil energy sources will be examined, as well as the options to reduce these emissions while ensuring the availability of adequate energy supplies for economic development. Some suggestions on possible ways for the industrialized countries and the larger countries of the region such as China, India, and Indonesia to reach an Agreement limiting future greenhouse gas emissions will also be discussed.

Toufiq Siddiqi is an Adjunct Senior Fellow in the Research Program at the East-West Center, and President of Global Environment and Energy in the 21st Century, a non-profit organization based in Hawaii. At the EWC, he initiated the program on “The Environmental Dimensions of Energy Policies” in 1980 and on mitigation strategies to address global climate change in 1989. Dr. Siddiqi served as the Regional Advisor on Energy at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific from 1995-97. He has been a consultant to the United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the U.S. Agency for International Development. He was a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and was the first Visiting Senior Fellow at the Global Environment Facility in Washington, DC. He is a former President of the Hawaii Academy of Science.

Event Sponsor
EWC Research Program, Research Program

More Information
Laura Moriyama, 944-7444, moriyaml@eastwestcenter.org

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