wild places | wild happenings | wild news
make a difference for our wild places

home | links | search the site
  all articles latest | past | articles by topics | search wildnews
wild news on wildsingapore
  Yahoo News
Global lawmakers seek new climate accord
By Desmond Butler, Associated Press Writer

BBC 16 Feb 07
Politicians sign new climate pact

Leading international politicians have reached a new agreement on tackling climate change, at a Washington summit.

Delegates agreed that developing countries would also have to meet targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, as well as rich countries.The informal meeting also agreed that a global market should be formed to cap and trade carbon dioxide emissions.

The non-binding declaration is seen as vital in influencing a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol, correspondents say. The forum's closing statement said man-made climate change was now "beyond doubt".

"Climate change is a global issue and there is an obligation on us all to take action, in line with our capabilities and historic responsibilities," said the statement from the Global Legislators Organisation for a Balanced Environment (Globe).

'Tipping point'

The two-day meeting brought together legislators from countries including the Group of Eight rich nations, plus Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa. The BBC's environment analyst Roger Harrabin was at the meeting and says that although the declaration carries no formal weight, it indicates a real change in mood.

The legislators agreed that developing countries had to face targets on greenhouse gas emissions, in the same way rich countries do. They said they wanted a successor to the Kyoto Protocol - which expires in 2012 - in place by 2009.

US senator Joe Lieberman forecast that the US Congress would enact a law on cutting emissions by the end of next year, possibly this year. And presidential candidate John McCain, who is co-sponsoring climate legislation with Mr Lieberman, was emphatic on the need for new initiatives.

"I am convinced that we have reached the tipping point and that the Congress of the United States will act, with the agreement of the administration," he told the forum.

But Dr John Holdren, the head of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), said President George W Bush needed to appreciate that the US economy would not suffer unnecessarily if emission were capped.

"The economic damage from not addressing climate change is much larger than the economic cost of addressing it," he said.

Meanwhile, the Canadian parliament moved to force the government to meet its Kyoto Protocol target for reducing emissions.

The ruling Conservative party argues that meeting the target, of reducing emissions by 6% from 1990 levels by the period 2008-2012, is impossible. The parliamentary vote gives the government 60 days to formulate a plan for getting back on track.

With United Nations climate negotiations in December failing to agree a timetable for mandating new cuts in emissions when the current Kyoto targets expire in 2012, the British-led Globe set up the Washington meeting in the hope of stimulating progress in a less formal setting.

The UN's panel on climate change said earlier this month that higher global temperatures caused by man-made pollution would melt polar ice, worsen floods and droughts and cause more devastating storms.

Yahoo News
Global lawmakers seek new climate accord
By Desmond Butler, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - A group of global lawmakers signed a resolution Thursday urging a new agreement limiting greenhouse gas emissions by 2009 to succeed the Kyoto protocol, which is set to expire in 2012.

The resolution reached after a two-day forum on global warming attended by lawmakers from about 20 countries, including members of Congress, urged the Group of Eight industrialized countries to commit to the 2009 deadline when they next meet in June.

On Wednesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country holds the rotating presidencies of the G-8 and the European Union, outlined her priorities on global warming in a video address to the forum.

Merkel has agreed to convene an international meeting on climate change in May to prepare for the G-8 summit in the German resort of Heiligendamm June 6-8.

Lawmakers attending the forum held on Capitol Hill said that after hearing from U.S. lawmakers who attended that they sensed a political shift in Washington toward greater cooperation with other countries on combatting global warming.

"I've detected a really quite remarkable change here on climate change," said Elliot Morley, a British member of Parliament who chaired the forum.

A senior State Department official told the attendees Thursday that the U.S. is committed to working with other countries on the issue. "We share with other countries the goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and introducing new, cleaner technologies," said State Department Undersecretary Paula J. Dobriansky.

Dobriansky outlined steps taken by the U.S. in reducing emissions but made no mention of the Kyoto treaty, which the U.S. has refused to endorse since it was negotiated in 1997. President Bush has made clear that his administration will not agree to the kind of mandatory emission caps required under Kyoto because the administration believes the restrictions will harm U.S. businesses.

Thirty-five other industrial nations, who have endorsed the pact, agreed to cut their global- warming gases by 5 percent on average below 1990 levels by 2012.
links
Related articles on Global issues: climate change
about the site | email ria
  News articles are reproduced for non-profit educational purposes.
 

website©ria tan 2003 www.wildsingapore.com