Posted on 08/31/2007 7:28:15 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
VIENNA, Austria - Negotiators from 158 countries reached basic agreement Friday on rough targets aimed at getting some of the world's biggest polluters to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.
A weeklong U.N. 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 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 setting emissions targets.
The 2020 targets are not binding, but they were seen as an important signal that industrialized nations are serious about slashing the amount of carbon dioxide and other dangerous gases to try to avert the most catastrophic consequences of global warming.
Friday's 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 U.N.'s top climate official.
De Boer said the agreement doesn't 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.
Friday's agreement does not include the U.S., which has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol.
Environmental groups stressed that developed countries need to take urgent measures to keep Earth's temperature from rising more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit — 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 Friday's 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 had pressed hard for the 2020 targets. The EU already has pledged to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other harmful gases by 20 percent by that year, and by another 10 percent if other industrialized nations join in.
Yvo de Boer, the U.N.'s top climate official, 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.
Their negotiators, he said, were acting out of a sense of urgency and a fear that "they won't have a country to represent" if climate change is not slowed.
U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change http://www.unfccc.int
An iceberg in Ilulissat fjord in Greenland, August 16, 2007. Industrial nations agreed to consider stiff 2020 goals for cutting greenhouse gases on Friday in a small step towards a new climate pact to replace the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol. (Michael Kappeler/Pool/Reuters)
The Esmark glacier on the Norwegian Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, seen here 23 August 2007, has shrunk by 3.5 Kms since 1966 though researchers are unable to say whether the change is due to global warming or the glacier's normal cycle.(AFP/File/Pierre-Henry Deshayes)
Utter foolishness.
Of course this includes China and India...........right?
Well so this is what it is all about, fear.
A man puts his baby on top of his car as he and a woman abandon their car after it started to float when Hurricane Katrina hit the Treme area of New Orleans August 29, 2005. Hurricane Katrina might have caused less damage if the Bush administration had completed a required report of U.S. vulnerability to global warming before the storm hit, an environmental policy analyst said on Wednesday. (Rick Wilking/Reuters)
CO2 does not cause global warming, it is a result of global warming. Mr. Sun causes global warming.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Even all the countries made these cuts, it will make no difference according to the models.
Now Now , Don't go raining on CRaZy Al's Parade!. ;-)
“The 2020 targets are not binding, but they were seen as an important signal that industrialized nations are serious about slashing the amount of carbon dioxide and other dangerous gases to try to avert the most catastrophic consequences of global warming.”
In the space of a few months we have gone from CO2 being relabeled as a pollutant to now suddenly attaining the status of a “dangerous gas” without so much as a how-do-you-do.
“A man puts his baby on top of his car as he and a woman abandon their car after it started to float when Hurricane Katrina hit the Treme area of New Orleans August 29, 2005. Hurricane Katrina might have caused less damage if the Bush administration had completed a required report of U.S. vulnerability to global warming before the storm hit, an environmental policy analyst said on Wednesday. (Rick Wilking/Reuters) “
Boy, let’s write more reports if that’s all it takes to reduce Global Warming....:^)
And that's a good thing!
Yvo de Boer, the U.N.'s top climate official, 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.
Their negotiators, he said, were acting out of a sense of urgency and a fear that "they won't have a country to represent" if climate change is not slowed.
Oops, gotta stop. Don't wanta be banned from FR :)
Click on POGW graphic for full GW rundown
New!!: Dr. John Ray's
GREENIE WATCH
Ping me if you find one I've missed.
Yet they DEMAND we cut energy use (er, emissions) by 25% of the old 1990 levels.
And the EU bureaucrats, leading this international socialist effort, can't even meet their own 2010 target, much less the far more aggressive 2020 levels.
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