The world is losing momentum in the battle against global warming, the U.N.
climate chief warned on Saturday, urging environmental ministers from wealthy
nations to revive the effort by setting clear targets for reducing greenhouse
gases.
The ministers gathered in the western Japanese city of Kobe for a three-day
meeting as evidence mounted that rising world temperatures have been taking a
toll on the earth at a faster rate than previously forecast.
The officials from the Group of Eight countries, joined by representatives from
other countries including China and other organizations, were to lay the
foundations for the upcoming G8 summit in northern Japan in July.
U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer told the Associated Press on the sidelines that
he was concerned about stalling momentum behind international talks to forge a
global warming pact by December 2009 to succeed the Kyoto Protocol. Its first
phase ends in 2012.
"Much of the enthusiasm and ambition that we saw in Bali with the launch of
negotiations doesn't seem to be present," he said, referring to a meeting on the
Indonesian resort island in December, when some 190 countries decided on a
timetable for talks on the new climate pact.
De Boer cited a recently announced U.S. climate plan that would allow an
increase in emissions, Canada's indication that it will not meet its obligations
under the Kyoto agreement, and European industry's skepticism about the EU goal
of cutting emissions by 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.
To rejuvenate the talks, G8 countries — the United States, Japan, Russia,
Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Canada — need to decide on midterm targets
for reducing carbon emissions by 2020, make a clearer commitment to helping
poorer nations deal with climate change, and form a dialogue with top developing
countries such as China to run parallel with the U.N.-led talks, he said.
"Certainly my expectation is that ... the G8 leaders will now really take things
to the next level, and I think need to take it to the next level, with December
2009 being just around the corner," de Boer said.
On Saturday the ministers heard from environmentalists and business leaders
before moving behind closed doors.
Environmentalists urged quick action to stem the effects of the rise in world
temperatures, which scientists say threaten to drive species to extinction,
worsen floods and droughts, and thwart economic development.
The rapid melting of ice in the Arctic, increasing crop damage and other effects
show the multiplying effects or higher temperatures, said Bill Hare, of the
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. Summer sea ice in the Arctic, for
instance, shrank to a record low last year to nearly 40 percent less than the
long-term average between 1979 and 2000.
Hare warned that rising oil prices could speed that even further. Light, sweet
crude for July delivery settled at $132.19 a barrel Friday on the New York
Mercantile Exchange. The increase encourages the use of cheaper coal — a much
dirtier fuel.
"The recent developments in the energy sector, particularly high oil prices and
coal intensive development ... are pointing toward the risk of higher
emissions," Hare told the ministers.
The initial meetings on Saturday illustrated the continuing divisions among
nations over how to attack climate change.
The U.N. process has moved slowly, with nations clashing over how ambitious the
world should be in stemming the rising in world temperatures, how reduction
targets should be set, and how much rapidly developing nations such as China
should be called on to rein in emissions of greenhouse gases.
Hilary Benn, British environmental chief, argued that the world had no choice
but to act against climate change now that scientists have shown that the earth
can only absorb a limited amount of greenhouse gases before temperatures rise
too high.
"The fundamental problem we have is a political one," he said. "How do we divide
up between all the nations of the earth in a fair manner the ability to emit
that limited quantity of emissions so that we avoid dangerous climate change?"