EU warns of urgent need for new global climate agreement |
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Fri, 02 Feb 2007 15:44
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BRUSSELS (AFX) - International talks on a comprehensive new global climate change agreement are urgently required, European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said following the publication of alarming scientific data on global warming.United Nations climate scientists delivered their starkest warning yet about global warming, saying fossil fuel pollution would raise temperatures this century; lead to more serious floods, droughts and hurricanes; melt polar sea ice; and damage the climate system for a thousand years to come.'I am deeply concerned at the accelerating pace and the increasing extent of climate change,' Dimas said.'It is now more urgent than ever that the international community gets down to serious negotiations on a comprehensive new worldwide agreement to stop global warming.'To stabilise global output of greenhouse gases, developed countries should cut their emissions to 30 pct below 1990 levels by 2020, as the European Commission proposed last month, Dimas said in a statement.Such a new accord is required to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which requires them to bring emissions down to around 5 pct below 1990 levels by 2012. The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, wants a new agreement in place by 2009.If the initiative for a new global treaty fails, the 27-nation European Union has determined to unilaterally reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 'at least 20 per cent'.In its first assessment in six years, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- the UN's top scientific authority on global warming -- dealt a crippling blow to the shrinking body of opinion that claims higher temperatures in past decades have been driven by natural, not man-made, causes.The IPCC projects that without more action to limit greenhouse gas emissions the Earth's average temperature is likely to rise by a further 1.8 to 4.0 degrees Celsius this century, after increasing by over 0.7 degrees Celsius over the past 100 years.Even the low end of this range would take the temperature rise since pre-industrial times to more than two degrees -- the level at which scientists beleive there could be irreversible and possibly catastrophic consequences.newsdesk@afxnews.comafp/jrCOPYRIGHTCopyright AFX News Limited 2006. All rights reserved.The copying, republication or redistribution of AFX News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AFX News.AFX News and AFX Financial News Logo are registered trademarks of AFX News Limited
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U.N. climate official wants leadership 