The ICC views with concern the proposal that the Third Conference of the Parties to the Convention, scheduled for December this year in Kyoto, should adopt a legal instrument that would impose on the industrialized countries more stringent quantitative targets for greenhouse gas emissions than they are already committed to. Few, if any, industrialized countries will achieve the initial aim of the FCCC to reduce such emissions to their 1990 levels by the year 2000. Without a more thorough understanding of why current targets cannot be met, it would be highly unrealistic for the Kyoto meeting to prescribe new and stricter quantitative targets for the first decade of the next century. Numerous important questions about the impact and implementation of further reducing emission targets cannot be answered in the short time available before Kyoto. The ICC believes that the Kyoto meeting should seek to reach agreement on a programme for curbing greenhouse gas emissions that is pragmatic and achievable, reflects economic and political realities, and provides maximum flexibility in setting national goals and implementing response measures.
Climate change is an issue that business takes very seriously.
The scientific uncertainties that still surround it argue for flexible, pragmatic and cost-effective responses which can best be developed through a close dialogue between governments and business. In its latest World Economic Outlook, the IMF paints a remarkably rosy picture of the world economy and argues that the prospects for maintaining buoyant growth over the longer term have improved considerably in the 1990s. Much of this progress the Fund attributes to the growing integration of the world economy and the globalization of business. The ICC agrees with the judgement of the Fund. It is bringing unprecedented opportunities to billions of people.