Flexibility Mechanisms Flexibility mechanisms must not represent a loophole that allows the Parties that pollute the most per capita to evade domestic action. Quantified and verifiable rules are needed to ensure trading is supplemental. An increase in Annex B emissions, due to trading is unacceptable. Permits are not property rights but tools to control pollution. As Governments formulate their strategies for implementing the Kyoto Protocol, they must not look to technologies that raise more environmental problems than they solve.
Nuclear technologies produce waste that lasts thousands of years and the risk of major accidents.
Furthermore, nuclear energy is an inflexible and expensive option that precludes the more sustainable, clean, flexible and inexpensive energy efficiency and renewable energy solutions available today. The Protocol should not lead to the life extension of operating reactors or to the construction of new ones. Ministers, honoured delegates, friends, let me conclude on a personal level. I am deeply troubled that the consequences of the carbon economy on which we all rely today will be felt primarily by future generations. The recent events in Central America, China, and elsewhere demonstrate our own vulnerability to the impacts of a warmer climate.