Industrial nations were shying away from fixing stiff 2020
guidelines for greenhouse gases cuts at UN talks on Friday in what
environmentalists said would be a vote for "dangerous" climate
change.
A draft text at the UN talks dropped a demand that developed
nations should be "guided" by a need for steep cuts in greenhouse
gases of 25 to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 in working out
a long-term fight against global warming.
"There are a limited number of problems still with the text,"
said Yvo de Boer, the head of the UN Climate Change Secretariat. He
predicted a compromise by the end of the August 27-31 talks among
1,000 delegates with "something for everyone".
The European Union and many developing nations such as China and
India want industrial states to use the stringent 25-40 percent
range to guide future talks to force a shift away from fossil
fuels, blamed by UN reports for stoking global warming.
But Russia, Japan, Canada, New Zealand and Switzerland objected
to setting the stringent range in negotiations about extending the
UN's Kyoto Protocol, the main plan for fighting global warming that
runs to 2012, delegates said.
"The lower the stabilization level (of greenhouse gases)
achieved, the lower the consequent damages," the draft said. It
mentions the option of 25-40 percent cuts but drops a previous
reference to them as an indicative guide for future work.
"This is voting for the apocalypse," said Stephanie Tunmore of
environmental group Greenpeace. "The 25-40 percent range is needed
to help avert dangerous climate change" such as more powerful
storms, rising seas and melting glaciers, she said.
"Japan is willing to let the typhoons roll in and the water flow
onto its coastal land. Switzerland is committed to melt all its
remaining glaciers," environmentalists said in a newsletter.
Kyoto binds 36 industrial nations to cut emissions of greenhouse
gases by at least 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12 in a first
step to contain warming that could bring more floods,
desertification, disease and raise sea levels.
The talks are the first chance for Kyoto backers to see if they
can agree a range for industrial nations' talks on a new climate
pact that many governments want to agree in 2009.
(China Daily via agencies September 1, 2007)
