Tourism set to suffer from climate change it generates: UN

The booming worl-dwide tourism industry could prove its own worst enemy by contributing to the global warming threatening some of the planet’s prized destinations, UN agencies warned Monday.

If no measures are taken, tourism’s impact on climate change is set to more than double in the next 30 years, according to advance data from a report released by the UN tourism, environment and weather agencies for an international meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

“The tourism industry is both challenged by climate change and a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions,” said UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Achim Steiner.

Coastal, mountain and nature destinations, especially in poor countries or island states like the Maldives, are likely to be the most affected by weather shifts and rising sea levels, according to extracts from the report on climate change and tourism.

While traffic to other destinations in more temperate areas might grow, global warming could drain a vital part of the economic lifeblood of some least-developed countries.

“Climate change is real, its effects are proven, and the tourism sector has to play its part in contributing to the solution of the challenge it poses,” said UN World Tourism Organisation Secretary General Franco Frangialli.

The UN agencies, ministers, industry executives and climate experts are due to discuss the issue at a three-day meeting in this Swiss Alpine resort starting Monday.

Travel is growing rapidly, reaching about 842 million trips worldwide last year and growing at an annual rate averaging 6.5 percent since 1950, according to the UNWTO.

The number of international trips is expected to nearly double to 1.5 billion by 2020.

Transport, accommodation and other tourism activites already account for four to six percent of global greenhouse gas emissions that fuel climate change, according to the report, which is due to be released later this year.

The industry’s growth could lead to a 150 percent increase in its carbon dioxide emissions alone in the next 30 years, the UNWTO, UNEP and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said.

AFP

EU to hold trade talks with Central America

The European Uni-on will begin trade talks with Central America later this month to bring closer ties with a region that traditionally partners with the United States.

Panamanian Foreign Minister Samuel Lewis Navarro said on Monday the first round of talks for a so-called “association agreement” a step down from membership of the European Union will be held in Costa Rica on Oct. 22.

“The association agreement will deal with political links, cooperation and trade,” Navarro said. The EU currently has similar deals with Chile and Mexico.

Beyond pushing trade, the accord will look to establish standards between the two regions, including Panama, that foster business and investment. Navarro was speaking after a meeting with the EU’s external relations commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner.

Ferrero-Waldner arrived in Panama on Saturday, her first stop in a six-day visit to Central America to promote the deal. She will also visit El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras.

While Europe’s economic influence in the region is less than that of the United States, Central America is increasingly attractive for European firms hoping to do business in the 40-million strong market.

Trade between the two regions was worth around $5 billion in 2006. The United States is pushing its CAFTA free trade pact with Central America.

Costa Rica is the only country that has not ratified CAFTA — which includes Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic — and will be the only nation to decide the issue by referendum.

More than 100,000 Costa Ricans protested the trade pact on Sunday because they say it will flood their country with cheap farm goods and cause job losses.

The Oct. 7 referendum has split the nation, with Costa Rican President Oscar Arias and some businesses saying CAFTA will bring investment and jobs.

Reuters

India loses to Canada, Italy for IMF policy post

India’s bid to become the first developing country to head a major International Monetary Fund committee was thwarted on Monday as an alliance of countries opted in favor of keeping industrial countries in top policy spots at the global financial institution.

India’s chances of chairing the International Monetary and Financial Committee, or IMFC, were dashed in a second round of voting when a group of Anglo-African countries, led by Nigeria, left the Indian camp in favor of Italy. The reasons for the move were not made public, IMF insiders said.

A run-off vote starting on Tuesday will be between Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and Italian Finance Minister Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa.

The vote comes as the IMF is searching for a new role in a changing world where rising powers like China, India, Brazil and Russia want to shake up institutions like the fund to better reflect their growing economic weight.

India’s bid for the IMFC chair had the backing of many large developing countries including China, Brazil and Russia.

But there have been deepening divisions among the rapidly growing emerging countries and less developed ones, especially in Africa, which still rely on rich nations for aid.

Canada was backed by the United States, Saudi Arabia and Franco-African countries, while Italy was backed by other European members.

The Fund is currently reviewing proposals that would revamp its voting structure to give China and other emerging powers more of a say in decisions of the IMF, which has long been dominated by the United States and Europe.

The IMFC top post became open after Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown resigned in July to become prime minister.

The IMFC job has always been held by a European except briefly in the early 1980s when Canada filled the seat.

The first round of voting surrounding the IMFC chairmanship was overshadowed on Friday by the appointment, as expected, of former French Finance Minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn as the IMF’s new managing director.

Reuters

China takes top spot for Chilean exports

China has overtaken the United States as the principal destination for Chilean exports, accounting for 15 percent of the country’s total sales abroad, the Chilean government said on Monday.

It said in a statement that exports to China reached $5.052 billion in the first half of 2007, 140 percent more than in the same period a year earlier.

The big increase was due largely to the implementation of a Free Trade Agreement between the two nations last October. Chile was the first country outside Asia to reach such an agreement with Beijing.

Mining accounted for 85 percent of all Chilean exports to China in the first half of this year.