World applauds climate change recommendations

By Deutshe Presse Agentur, dpa

Governments have unanimously welcomed the Bangkok Report on global warming - which warned that there were only eight years left to act but said reducing emissions could be achieved with about 0.1 per cent of the world's annual economic output.

The third report by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released in Bangkok Friday, said that global emissions must start declining by the year 2015 to prevent the world's temperature from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrialised levels - a threshold expected to pose serious risks to human beings.

Bringing carbon dioxide back down to acceptable levels would cost less than 3 per cent of global gross domestic product in total, or less than 0.12 per cent of global GDP per year, by improving energy efficiency and expanding the use of renewable energy alternatives, the report said.

"It is now time for the rest of the international community to follow our lead and commit to ambitious reduction targets," European Union Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said.

The 27-member EU earlier this year vowed bold action in the fight against climate change, setting a binding target of slashing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20 per cent by 2020, followed by a 30-per-cent reduction in emissions provided other industrialised nations like the United States follow suit.

US officials emphasised the importance of this latest report, but said their country would not adopt corrective actions that would seriously damage the economy.

Jim Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said that spending 3 per cent of GDP on combatting global warming was untenable.

"Well that would, of course, cause a global recession," Connaughton told reporters. "No leader in the world ... is going to be pursuing a strategy that would drive their economies into a deep recession."

German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said Friday that a climate catastrophe can be prevented if the world acts quickly, echoing comments by a number of European officials Friday.

"We have no time to lose," Gabriel said, appealing for a more widespread use of technology needed to increase energy efficiency and expand the production of bio-fuels.

"It's important that we set the right course at the climate conference in Bali in December," he said in reference to negotiations planned on the Indonesian island for a new international treaty.

The so-called Kyoto Protocols, which have subjected member countries to targeted emissions reductions since 2005, must be renewed by the year 2012. Friday's report provided a solid basis for the Bali negotiations on a follow-up treaty, according to Yvo de Boer, the UN's top climate official.

De Boer said the next treaty should lay down firm targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but added that he did not believe emerging economies like China, India and Brazil were ready to accept binding goals.

He told a news conference in Berlin that large developing countries could make a contribution through their own energy efficiency programmes and inclusion in carbon trading schemes.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon echoed De Boer's comments, urging governments to demonstrate the political will to work out a comprehensive solution to the climate problem.

"A comprehensive package on the way forward needs to be urgently launched at the IPCC in Bali in December," Ban said in a statement. "I call on all parties to the Convention on Climate Change to work towards this aim with the political will to decisively abate climate change and its impacts on our planet and people."

But officials in the US, which did not sign the Kyoto Protocols, said that until emissions are brought under control in developing countries like China and India, nothing will change.

"Some two-thirds to three-fourths of (the) growth is going to come from developing countries," primarily due to the generation of electricity from coal, said Dr Harlan Watson, the senior US climate negotiator.

The IPCC report suggested that one way to mitigate climate change is switching from coal to gas for electricity, but US officials made clear they expect coal to remain king.

"China will use its coal to develop, the United States will use its coal as part of our overall energy profile," Connaughton said.

Reporters repeatedly asked whether the US would support any of the target emission levels suggested in the IPCC report, similar to the EU's aim for one of the lower levels.

The US officials said such targets were meaningless, since reductions in one country could be offset by increases in other countries, like China or India. Instead, they referred to President George W Bush's targets set in January for reductions, including a push for more use of renewable, less polluting fuels like ethanol.

"In America, culturally, our people are just much more responsive" to specific amounts, Connaughton said. Americans say: "Tell me how much I need to achieve in a particular sector by when," Connaughton said.

New Zealand on Saturday said the IPCC report showed that action to counter global warming is both affordable and practical.

"The report confirms that with technologies that are available today, and that are currently being developed, we can cut emissions and avoid the worst projected impacts of climate change," David Parker, a cabinet minister dealing with the environment, said in a statement.