Battle over emissions at climate meeting
Wednesday, 12 December 2007
BALI, Indonesia, Dec 11 (AP): The battle over whether to include greenhouse gas emissions targets in the 'roadmap' for a new climate accord intensified Tuesday, with the Europeans and environmentalists clamoring for the targets against opposition by the US and others.
Talks at the United Nations (UN) climate change conference, now in its second week, stepped up with the scheduled arrival of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Australia's new prime minister, Kevin Rudd, who signed onto the Kyoto Protocol on global warming just last week.
Delegates from 190 nations have been trying to hammer out a roadmap for negotiations for a pact to succeed Kyoto when it expires in 2012 but have struggled with the wording for the text.
A draft of the final document notes - in a nonbinding way - a widely accepted view that reductions of 25 per cent to 40 per cent in industrialized nations' overall emissions would be required by 2020, calling for even deeper cuts later.
The United States (US) is resisting inclusion of the language. But Stavros Dimas, the European commissioner for environment, said it was crucial toward preventing global temperatures from exceeding 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over preindustrial levels.
Talks at the United Nations (UN) climate change conference, now in its second week, stepped up with the scheduled arrival of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Australia's new prime minister, Kevin Rudd, who signed onto the Kyoto Protocol on global warming just last week.
Delegates from 190 nations have been trying to hammer out a roadmap for negotiations for a pact to succeed Kyoto when it expires in 2012 but have struggled with the wording for the text.
A draft of the final document notes - in a nonbinding way - a widely accepted view that reductions of 25 per cent to 40 per cent in industrialized nations' overall emissions would be required by 2020, calling for even deeper cuts later.
The United States (US) is resisting inclusion of the language. But Stavros Dimas, the European commissioner for environment, said it was crucial toward preventing global temperatures from exceeding 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over preindustrial levels.