Dec-2011-International

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il dead
On December 19, 2011, North Korea announced the death of supreme leader Kim Jong Il and asked its people to rally behind his young son and heir-apparent, while the world watched for signs of instability in a nation pursuing nuclear weapons.

South Korea launched a high alert for its military as it faces the North’s 1.2 million-strong armed forces, while President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak agreed to closely monitor the events and cooperate.

People on the streets of the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, broke into tears as they learned the news that their “Dear Leader” had died at the age 69 of heart failure.

Kim Jong-Il had unveiled his third son Kim Jong-Un as his successor a year ago, putting him in high-ranking posts. However, little is known about the younger Kim. Kim Jong-Un regularly accompanied his father on trips around the country over the past year. Kim Jong-Il had inherited power after his father, revered North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, died in 1994.

Canada becomes first country to pull out of Kyoto protocol
On December 12, 2011, Canada became the first country to announce it would withdraw from the Kyoto protocol on climate change, dealing a symbolic blow to the already troubled global treaty.

Canada, a major energy producer which critics complain is becoming a climate renegade, has long complained Kyoto is unworkable precisely because it excludes so many significant emitters.

The right-of-centre Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, which has close ties to the energy sector, says Canada would be subject to penalties equivalent to $13.6 billion under the terms of the treaty for not cutting emissions by the required amount by 2012.

Canada is the largest supplier of oil and natural gas to the United States and is keen to boost output of crude from Alberta’s oil sands, which requires large amounts of energy to extract.

Canada’s former Liberal government signed up to Kyoto, which dictated a cut in emissions to six per cent below 1990 levels by 2012. By 2009 emissions were 17 per cent above the 1990 levels, in part because of the expanding tar sands development.

UN climate meet approves roadmap for 2015 deal
On December 11, 2011, UN climate negotiators, who had gathered in Durban, South Africa, struck a compromise deal on a roadmap for an accord that will, for the first time, legally force all major carbon emitters to cut greenhouse gas emissions, ending days of wrangling between India and the EU over the fate of the Kyoto protocol.

While the new pact to be finalised till 2015, will, for the first time, bring India and China under the ambit of a legal mechanism guiding emission cuts, the accord will come into effect only from 2020.

The pact on tackling climate change must be completed by 2015, and talks on the new legal deal covering all countries will begin next year, when Kyoto Protocol expires.

Under the compromise, while India and China agreed to bring themselves under a governing treaty, the developed nations agreed to a second commitment period under Kyoto Protocol, putting to rest concerns that they would walk away from commitments once the 1997 treaty expires in 2012.

Kyoto Protocol remains the only legally binding treaty for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, and India had batted hard for its revival at the 194-party conference.

Kyoto Protocol sets binding targets for 37 industrialised nations and the EU to slash carbon emissions to 5 per cent below the 1990 levels by 2012.

Up to now, China and India have been exempt from any constraints because they are developing countries, while the US had opted out of the Kyoto Protocol.

The final text of the Durban conference said parties would “develop a protocol, another legal instrument or an agreed outcome with legal force”. The compromise averted the use of “legally-binding”.

Describing the agreement reached at the climate talks in Durban as “significant”, UN chief Ban Ki-Moon said it represents an “important advance” in the work on tackling global warming and sought its quick implementation.

Apart from the roadmap for a new deal, the meet agreed to the management of a fund for climate aid to poor countries, though how to raise the money was not specified.

Under the agreement, EU will place its current emission-cutting pledges inside the legally-binding Kyoto Protocol.

West signals enduring support for Afghanistan at Bonn Conference
On December 5, 2011, the United States and other nations vowed to keep supporting Afghanistan after most foreign forces leave the country in 2014, as the nation faces an enduring Taliban-led insurgency and possible financial collapse.

The international community has “much to lose if the country again becomes a source of terrorism and instability,” US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said.

Clinton stressed that in return for continued support the Afghans must live up to their commitments “on taking difficult decisions to embrace reform, lead in their own defence and strengthen an inclusive democracy rooted in the rule of law.”

About 100 countries and international organisations were represented among the 1,000 conference delegates, including some 60 foreign ministers.

Afghanistan is economically dependent on foreign aid and spending related to the huge military presence, currently totalling about 130,000 international troops. The country seeks assurance that donor nations will help fill the gap after most forces leave by 2015.

Afghanistan estimates it will need outside contributions of roughly USD 10 billion in 2015, or slightly less than half the country’s annual gross national product, mostly to pay for its security forces, then slated to number about 350,000.

The conference’s final declaration outlined a series of mutual commitments for the decade following the troop withdrawal, strongly conveying that Afghanistan “will not be left alone”.

The Bonn conference was focused on the transfer of security responsibilities from international forces to Afghan security forces during the next three years, long-term prospects for international aid and a possible political settlement with the Taliban to ensure the country’s viability beyond 2014.