ENVIRONMENT

Commitment: "We commit ourselves to strong action and anticipate in 1997 a successful outcome of the Conference of the Parties to the Climate Change Convention and the speedy implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity

Grade: +1

Breakdown and Assessment

1) climate change - on 15 July, 1996, Chancellor Kohl called for the "drastic reductions in C02 emission levels and the protection of the ozone level" through "resource- conserving, energy-saving, integrated environmental protection that tackles the problem at the product and production-process development stage" - on 25 September 1996, Kinkel announced at UNGA 51 that Germany's industrial community had voluntarily undertaken measures to decrease their Co2 emissions by 20% by the year 2005 (since 1990, Germany has decreased its emissions by 13%, thereby leading the industrial world in emissions reductions) -at the 1997 Climate Conference in Japan, Germany urged the signatories to the convention for the "adoption of a substantive and binding protocol to decrease green house gas emissions", pressing for "more specific targets and time limits."