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Wire & Cable ASIA – September/October 2007
48
From the
americas
The environment
Japan embraces the European
campaign for greenhouse gas curbs,
but the US stonewalls
The United States, with less than 5% of the world’s
population, produces between 20% and 25% of the world’s
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, according to its own
official data. Although emissions in Europe and the United
States have been slowing recently, with a slight drop in the
US in 2006, accelerated growth is forecast by agencies in
both the West and in Asia.
It was in this context that the Group of 8 industrialised
nations (G-8) prepared to meet in June, in Germany, to
develop a united approach to the gathering crisis in climate
change. But the prospects for harmonious discussion were
shattered beforehand. On 25
th
May, American negotiators
raised strenuous objections to the German draft of the
communiqué for the meeting, on grounds that the proposal
‘crosses multiple red lines in terms of what [we] simply
cannot agree to.’
Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, who hosted the
meeting in the Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm, has
pushed hard to get G-8 to take significant action on global
warming. Germany has proposed cutting global GHG
emissions to 50% below 1990 levels, by 2050. But the
US has resisted such initiatives out of concerns about
damage to the American economy.
Britain, France, Italy, and of course Germany were
expected to back the proposal. But their ranks were
suddenly swelled on the eve of the conference when
Japan announced its solidarity with the Europeans. Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe proposed cutting carbon emissions
as part of a new framework to replace the Kyoto Protocol.
That United Nations-sponsored agreement covers more
than 160 countries and over 55% of global GHG emissions,
but its mandatory caps on emissions will end in 2012.
“The Kyoto Protocol was the first, concrete step for the
human race to tackle global warming, but we must admit
that it has limitations,” Mr Abe said at a conference in Tokyo
on 24
th
May. He specifically called on the US and China, the
second-biggest producer of carbon emissions, to lead the
fight against global warming.
The chances of this happening seem remote. The United
States has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol, and deflects
criticism of its refusal by noting that neither China nor India
endorses Kyoto. In these matters, the administration of
President George W Bush represents the US as aggrieved
and forbearant.
“We have tried to tread lightly,” the American response to
the German draft communiqué asserted. “But there is only
so far we can go, given our fundamental opposition to the
German position.”
Kristen A Hellmer, a spokeswoman for the White House
on environmental issues, said: “All the G-8 countries are
committed to pursuing an agreement. We just come at it
from different perspectives.”
That bit of piety did very little to soothe Greenpeace, the
international environmental advocacy organisation. The
group’s energy policy specialist, John Coequyt, had this
to say about the US opposition to Germany’s proposed
declaration: “The Bush administration is clearly ignoring
the global scientific consensus as well the groundswell
of concern about climate change in the United States.
The administration’s attempts to hold up any meaningful
agreement at the G-8 summit in June are criminal, but
not unexpected.”
Aerospace
Foreign airlines with new planes
are set to challenge US carriers
Reporting on 20
th
June from the Paris Air Show, Julie
Johnsson of the
Chicago Tribune
observed that aerospace,
an industry long dominated by US companies, is going
global. She cited orders from Qatar, Dubai, and Singapore
that have pushed aircraft sales to new heights over the
past two years, ‘even as older American and European
carriers remained on the sidelines.’ Of the orders placed
to that point in the show, Qatar Airways accounted for
the largest: 80 Airbus A350 XWBs and three Airbus
superjumbo A380s. Qatar and India’s Jet Airways are
rapidly building international networks and buying
fleets of the most advanced aircraft on offer. According to
Ms Johnsson they are targeting the US for expansion – and
they have a keen interest in Chicago. (‘Growing Foreign
Carriers Grabbing Air Space’)
Jet Airways plans to begin flying between India and Chicago
next year. Qatar is finalising a code-share agreement with
Chicago-based United Airlines, whose largest hub is
Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport where it has 650 daily
departures. The agreement would enable Qatar Airways
passengers from the Middle East or Europe to connect
to Chicago and other US cities. “The potential is large,”
Saroj Datta, executive director of Mumbai-based Jet
Airways, told the
Tribune
.
As for Emirates, the world’s fastest-growing airline, its
chairman Sheik Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum, of the ruling
family of Dubai, is bent on making his sheikdom by the sea
into the busiest airline hub in the world – ahead of London,
New York, and Singapore. Starting with $10 million in 1985,
Sheik Ahmed built Emirates from a two-plane operation into
the world’s eighth-largest international carrier. Now it has
ordered 55 superjumbo A380s, to begin building the biggest
fleet of the Airbus double-deckers anywhere. Emirates will
take delivery of one new Airbus or Boeing plane a month
for the next five years.
Boeing will adapt and stay the course
To Scott Carson, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial
Airplanes, the dynamic market evident at the Paris air
show is ‘the new reality’ to which his company has to
adapt. Boeing (Chicago) and Airbus (Toulouse, France)
have enjoyed nearly total dominance in a record-breaking
aerospace market. But change is in the wind.
❖
Statue of Liberty Image from BigStockPhoto.com
Photographer: Marty