14:41
FCO E.S.E.D.
Mrs Hogwood ESED
071 210 0447 P.02
FROM:
Jill Barrett
Assistant Legal Adviser
K174 270 3381
DATE:
11 August 1993
CC.
Ms Moore, HKD
HONG KONG: STATUS UNDER ENVIRONMENTAL CONVENTIONS BEFORE AND AFTER 1997
1. I have discussed the question of Hong Kong's status under various of the universal environmental conventions with Mr Daniel on a number of occasions. This minute attempts to summarise where we have got to on this subject, and in doing so to provide material for your reply to Miss Chow's letter of 28 July concerning climate change.
2.
A new problem has arisen in relation to a number of recent environmental conventions, in that they contain differentiated obligations for developed and developing country Parties. Typically, developed country Parties have more onorous obligations to protect the global environment, and have additional obligations to contribute to the financing of the measures taken by developing country parties to fulfill their obligations, and to facilitate the transfer of technology to those Parties. The UK is treated as a developed country while China is in the developing category.
3.
As far as I am aware, the first environmental treaty to contain such differentiated obligations was the Montreal Protocol on Substances which Deplete the Ozone Layer 1987, and the subsequent Amendments. The Climate Change and Biodiversity Conventions follow a similar structure. It seems likely that future conventions particularly those arising from the Rio Summit will contain similar features, eg. the Desertification Convention and possibly any which may emerge on forestry or the sustainable development of small island states. If you can think of any other existing treaties in this category please let me know.
MONTREAL PROTOCOL
4.
Both UK and China are Parties to the Protocol. It applies to Hong Kong by virtue of the UK's ratification. The text refers to "Parties" and "Parties which are developing countries". The latter term is used in Article 5(1), which allows developing country Parties whose level of consumption of controlled substances is below a specified limit to delay their compliance with the control measures for ten years. The term is not defined in the text, but a list of countries considered as developing countries for the purposes of the Protocol was agreed at the First Meeting of the Parties, and China is
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