FACTBOX-Climate change meetings this year

Reuters - Thursday, September 27 06:12 am

(Reuters) - This week's meetings in the United States on climate change are the latest in a series of decisions taken this year on an issue increasingly at the top of the international agenda:

JAN. 10 - European Commission presents "the most ambitious policy ever" to fight climate change, challenging the world to follow Europe's lead in cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The European Union executive proposes the 27-nation bloc reduce emissions by at least 20 percent by 2020 compared to 1990 levels and by 30 percent if others follow suit.

FEB. 2 - U.N. climate panel says it is at least 90 percent certain that mankind is to blame for most global warming in the last half century, up from 66 percent sure in 2001.

MARCH 9 - EU leaders resolve to slash greenhouse gas emissions and switch to renewable fuels, challenging the world to follow its lead in fighting climate change.

APRIL 6 - Climate experts warn global warming will cause faster and wider damage than previously forecast, ranging from hunger in Africa and Asia to extinctions and rising ocean levels.

MAY 4 - Climate experts, meeting in Bangkok, agree on third part of U.N. report that says fighting global warming is affordable and the technology is available and stresses the need to brake the growth in greenhouse gas emissions.

MAY 31 - U.S. President George W. Bush unveils long-term strategy on climate change, plans to gather countries that emit the most greenhouse gases and set a global emissions goal.

JUNE 7 - Group of Eight summit agrees on a need for "substantial cuts" in emissions, falling short of European calls to halve emissions by 2050. It also wants a global deal for fighting climate change in place by the end of 2009.

AUG. 3 - Bush invites 11 other countries plus the European Union and the United Nations to a conference on climate change for September 27-28 in Washington.

AUG. 27 - Climate negotiators from more than 150 countries meet in Vienna with calls for a global deal beyond 2012 to replace the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol and to include outsiders such as the United States and China.

AUG. 29 - Draft version of fourth and final part of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, due for release in November, says mankind to blame for climate change but governments still have time to impede the accelerating pace of damage at moderate cost if they act quickly. Industrial nations, meeting in Vienna, are deadlocked over whether to set stringent 2020 goals for cutting greenhouse gases at a first U.N. session about long-term climate targets.

SEPT. 7 - Asia-Pacific leaders agree to a "long-term aspirational goal" to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but no binding targets, at end of APEC summit.

SEPT. 24 - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon seeks to advance the global agenda on climate change when he meets heads of state and other top officials from more than 150 countries at the United Nations.

Sept 27-28 - Representatives of major economies -- those that emit most of the world's greenhouse gases -- meet at U.S. State Department to discuss energy security and climate change.

OCT. 1-3 - The second International Conference on Climate Change and Tourism is due to be held in Davos, Switzerland.

NOV. 12-17 - The 27th session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is to take place in Valencia, Spain.

DEC. 3-14 - The U.N. Climate Change Conference, in Bali, Indonesia, will bring together representatives of more than 180 countries with observers from intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations.

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