http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/08/31/3534/Published on Friday, August 31, 2007 by Reuters
Rich Nations Shy Away from Stiff 2020 Goals
by Alister Doyle
VIENNA - Industrial nations were shying away from fixing stiff 2020 guidelines for greenhouse gases cuts at U.N. talks on Friday in what environmentalists said would be a vote for “dangerous” climate change.
A draft text at the U.N. 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 U.N. 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 U.N. reports for stoking global warming.
But Russia, Japan, Canada, New Zealand and Switzerland objected to setting the stringent range in negotiations about extending the U.N.’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.
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“I think there is a building momentum, I don’t think we have enough of it yet,” he told a news conference. “There is a changing mood. there are important countries who say that the time for talk has come for an end.”
Cuts of 25-40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 are the stiffest scenario by the U.N.’s climate panel in a May 2007 report seen as limiting global warming to 2.0 to 2.4 Celsius (3.6 to 4.3 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.
The EU, which has said it will unilaterally cut emissions by 20 percent by 2020 and by 30 percent if other nations follow suit, and environmentalists say that any gain in temperatures above 2 Celsius will bring dangerous changes.
© Reuters 2007.
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Building momentum.... this crisis has been building for over THIRTY years and we are just beginning globally to build momentum? We're screwed if these games keep up. I mean, we can't have anybody NOT getting rich off of this in lieu of actually really giving a damn about the people and other species it is affecting now can we? Some days I really am totally fed up with the BS regarding people treating this crisis as if it is something we have time to just "build momentum" over the next thirty years. If we take thirty more years to build momentum WE WON'T HAVE A LIVEABLE PLANET. We need an evasive and comprehensive treaty by 2009. Unfortunately, it is going to take human beings putting it together.