Carmen Bunzl - Universidad Pontificia Comillas

Chapter 5. Conclusions 245
The Japanese proposal for a “sectoral approach,” whereby national targets
would consist of sector-by-sector targets across national boundaries proved to
be one of the most contentious issues of the Bangkok meeting. Many feared this
would undermine legally-binding commitments by developed countries, such as
Japan who already has a high level of energy efficiency in many industries, and
have implications for future commitments of developing countries, such as China,
who would have to drastically increase the energy efficiency to be competitive
in certain sectors, like steel.
Several sectoral initiatives and voluntary agreements are already in place,
for example, those implemented by the International Aluminum Institute, the
International Iron and Steel Institute, the Cement Sustainability Initiative within
the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, and ICAO. However,
approaches targeting sectoral emissions should complement national emission reduction
targets but not replace them.
Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería ICAI Carmen Bunzl Boulet Junio 2008