Posted on 12/02/2007 2:18:35 PM PST by ricks_place
BALI, Indonesia - World powers meeting at a UN climate change conference in Indonesia this week won't be able to craft a meaningful plan to address global warming without co-operation from the United States, the top emitter of greenhouse gases, the UN's climate chief said Sunday.
The United States refused to sign the last major international treaty on reducing greenhouse gases, undermining its effectiveness.
Delegates from 190 countries will gather on the resort island of Bali on Monday for one of the largest global warming conferences ever, bringing together about 10,000 people including Hollywood luminaries, former vice-president Al Gore, fishermen and drought-stricken farmers for two weeks of marathon discussions.
World leaders will attempt to launch negotiations that could lead to a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. Among the most contentious issues will be whether emission cuts should be mandatory or voluntary and how to help the world's poorest countries adapt to a warmer climate.
Yvo de Boer, general secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said the role of the United States "would be critical" in the discussions and that delegates must come up with a roadmap that's embraced by Washington.
"To design a long-term response to climate change that does not include the world's largest emitter and the world's largest economy just would not make any sense," he told reporters.
The United States, which along with Australia refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol, said ahead of the Bali talks that it was eager to launch negotiations, but has been among industrialized countries leading a campaign against mandatory emission cuts.
But now the United States finds itself isolated at the conference, given that Australian Prime Minister-elect Kevin Rudd, whose party swept to power in general elections just one week ago, immediately put signing the Kyoto pact at the top of his international agenda.
President Bush, trying to fend off charges that America is not doing enough, said this week that a final Energy Department report showed American emissions of carbon dioxide, a leading greenhouse gas, declined by 1.5 per cent last year while the U.S. economy grew.
"Energy security and climate change are two of the important challenges of our time. The United States takes these challenges seriously," he said.
The meeting on Bali comes after a Nobel Prize-winning UN network of scientists issued a report concluding the level of carbon and other heat-trapping "greenhouse gas" emissions must be stabilized by 2015 and decline from there to stave off the worst effects of climate change.
The solutions are within reach, they said, from investing in renewable energy to improving energy efficiency. Without action, temperatures will rise, resulting in droughts, severe weather, dying species and other consequences, they said.
"It is already affecting the livelihoods of people we work with," said Dr. Charles Ehrhart, Climate Change Co-ordinator for CARE International, citing concerns over food security and access to water. "It is contributing to tensions within and between communities."
The 1997 Kyoto pact required 36 industrial countries to reduce carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gasses but it set relatively low emissions reduction targets: about a five per cent required drop in the levels recorded in 1990 by 2012.
A new agreement must be concluded within two years to ensure a smooth, uninterrupted transition.
De Boer said countries need to act now but acknowledged that anyone who expects the Bali meeting to result in specific targets or long-term solutions "will leave disappointed."
Industrialized countries, which have pumped the lion's share of greenhouses gases into the atmosphere to date, should take the lead in reducing emissions, he said. Developing countries like China, the world's second biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, may not be required to cut their emissions immediately but should commit slowing the growth of carbon dioxide and other heat trapping gases.
At best, analysts believe, Bali could lead to an agreement in about two years time with the United States under a new administration, the Europeans and other industrial nations committing to deepening blanket emissions cuts. And they say major developing countries could agree to enshrine some national policies - China's auto emission standards, for example, or energy-efficiency targets for power plants - as international obligations.
Give them the single finger salute.
They could have had us as part of the Kyoto accord if they’d only wanted to do so instead of tweaking our nose.
USA says that UN can go straight to hell.
And the UN can kiss our ass.
The signatories are currently being fined Billon$, payable to the UN of course.
These jet set Bali Lard Butts are not only presumptuous, they are idiotic. They have no idea who produces the "most" geenhouse gasses.
But it's BUSHES FAULT!LOL
Is Dubyah running in 2008?
A little preview of headlines in late 2008 when the She-beast sweeps to power, Chavez-style...
Islamonazis want to cut folks heads off and impose Sharia law everywhere and all some can do is wring their hands about climate change.. What a bunch of ninnies!
So, if I read this correctly, there are no actual warming effects yet. Just people "concerned" and "tense" about it.
Industrialized countries, which have pumped the lion's share of greenhouses gases into the atmosphere to date, should take the lead in reducing emissions, he said. Developing countries like China, the world's second biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, may not be required to cut their emissions immediately but should commit slowing the growth of carbon dioxide and other heat trapping gases.
So China (which will become the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases in 2010, has no requiremnt to reduce emissions until some vague, unspecified period in the future.
There is no way that Congress will ratify this. None.
They are all flying to Bali, in jet aircraft I assume, which consume fossil fuels, and once there plan to tell us what to do? Had they decided to conduct this meeting through tele-conferencing or TV, or paddled to their luxurious Bali resort in dugout canoes, I might have a little more belief in their good faith. And we are no doubt paying for the party.
A member of Green Peace activist sets up a giant thermometer as a symbol of global warming during their campaign in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, Sunday, Dec. 2, 2007. World leaders launch marathon negotiations Monday on how to fight global warming, which left unchecked could cause devastating sea level rises, send millions further into poverty and lead to the mass extinction of plants and animals. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)
An armed Indonesian policeman stands guard in front of a U.N. Climate Change Conference billboard in Nusa Dua, Bali island December 2, 2007. Delegates from about 190 nations gathered in Bali on Sunday to try to build on a "fragile understanding" that the fight against global warming needs to be expanded to all nations with a deal in 2009. REUTERS/Murdani Usman (INDONESIA)
Throw the UN out of NY and get rid of a lot of hot air.
The UN and their Kyoto fiasco need cash to keep this nonsense going.
The grand-daddy of all granfalloons. What rubbish.
UN must recognize the sovreignity of the US government.
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