Better than Kyoto. Good enough?

International Herald Tribune - Friday, August 31, 2007

158 countries set targets for greenhouse gases in UN-brokered accord The Associated Press

VIENNA: Negotiators from 158 countries reached basic agreement Friday on rough targets for getting some of the world's biggest polluters to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

A weeklong United Nations climate conference concluded that industrialized countries should strive to cut emissions by 25 percent to 40 percent of their 1990 levels by 2020. Experts said that target would serve as a loose guide for a major international climate summit meeting to be held in December in Bali, Indonesia.

"We have reached broad agreement on the main issues," said Leon Charles, a negotiator from Grenada who helped oversee the Vienna talks.
Delegates worked into Friday evening to overcome resistance from several countries - including Canada, Japan and Russia - that had held up negotiations because they preferred a more open approach rather than emissions targets.

The 2020 targets are not binding, but they are seen as an important signal that industrialized nations are serious about slashing the amount of carbon dioxide and other gases to try to avert the most catastrophic consequences of global warming.

The Friday agreement sought to ease concerns that the emissions target might be too ambitious for some nations, noting that efforts to cut back on airborne pollutants are "determined by national circumstances and evolve over time."

But it made clear that greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced to "very low levels" to guard against potentially deadly flooding, drought and other fallout.

"Countries have been able to reassess the big picture of what is needed by identifying the key building blocks for an effective response to climate change," said Yvo de Boer, the UN's top climate official.

De Boer said the agreement did not let developing countries off the hook.

"Even if industrialized countries do this, it will only be a contribution to the global effort," he told reporters.

The Bali conference will try to forge a new global agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions after 2012, when the 1997 Kyoto Protocol expires. The Kyoto accord requires 35 industrial nations to cut their emissions 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.

The Friday agreement does not include the United States, which has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol.

Environmental groups stressed that developed countries needed to take urgent measures to keep the planet's temperature from rising more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, or 2 degrees Celsius - a limit scientists contend is critical to prevent catastrophic flooding and other deadly weather patterns.

"They need to be guided by the potential calamity," said Angela Anderson, vice president for climate programs at the Washington-based National Environmental Trust.

Failing to cut emissions by at least 30 percent of 1990 levels by 2020 "would condemn millions to disease, water shortages and misery in the developing world," said Red Constantino, an official with Greenpeace International.

WWF International called the new agreement a "safe range for emission reductions," but cautioned that it would have to be put into action. "In Bali, they will have to formally adopt this," it said in a statement.

European Union officials have been pressing hard for the 2020 targets.
The EU has already pledged to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other harmful gases by 20 percent by that year. It says it will cut by another 10 percent if other industrialized nations agree to join in.

De Boer said some developing countries - including small island nations most vulnerable to climate change as polar ice caps melt and sea levels rise - were pressing industrialized nations for even deeper emissions cuts.

 Copyright © 2007 The International Herald Tribune

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