Scientists call for immediate cuts in greenhouse gas emissions

London, England, Oct. 1— Emissions of greenhouse gases must be slashed quickly to just a “small fraction” of their present levels to avoid inflicting lasting change to the world’s climate, the foremost scientific authority on global warming said Monday.

The warning was made by the Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), gathering climatologists, physicists, oceanographers, biologists and farming experts.

They issued it in a “Summary for Policymakers,” a resume of the experts’ latest assessment of the global warming phenomenon.

“Stabilization of CO2 (carbon dioxide) concentrations at any level requires eventual reduction of global CO2 net emissions to a small fraction of the current emission level,” the document said.

“The lower the chosen level for stabilization, the sooner the decline in global net CO2 emissions needs to begin.”

Carbon dioxide is the biggest culprit among six “greenhouse gases” blamed for causing a slow but possibly disastrous rise in the Earth’s temperature.

Most of the gases are byproducts from burning carbon-based fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas and oil. They cause the sun’s heat to build up in the Earth’s atmosphere, rather than let it radiate safely back into space.

CO2 levels in the atmosphere last year were estimated at 368 parts per million (ppm).

UN countries have adopted an agreement, the Kyoto Protocol, that aims to reduce global output of greenhouse gases by rich industrialized countries by 5.2 percent by a time-frame of 2008-2012 compared to their 1990 levels.

However, ecologists say the figure falls far short of what is needed, and many doubt whether it can be achieved at all.

Kyoto was weakened by a US pullout earlier this year, and its provisions were then diluted at the demand of Australia, Canada and Japan, which exacted concessions to help soften the cost of meeting their emissions targets.

The IPCC summary stood by estimates, made in a mammoth assessment report issued earlier this year, that the Earth has warmed about 1.4 F since 1860, the highest increase in a millennium, with the last two decades being the warmest of the century.

It projects a further rise of between 2.5 and 10.4 F from 1990-2100, causing a rise in sea levels through melting polar ice and thermal expansion of between five and 55 inches.

The summary gloomily spelled out the inertial effect of global warming, saying that even if action began today on tackling greenhouse gases, climate change was inevitable.

“Reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, even stabilization of their concentration in the atmosphere at a low level, will neither altogether prevent climate change or sea-level rise, nor altogether prevent their impacts.”

Severe climate change can alter and intensify weather paterns leading to droughts, floods, and severe storms, some of which can severely affect agricultural crops. Other likely casualties will be biodiversity, air and water quality, glaciers and the polar ice caps.

“This confirms the urgency of the threat and increased risks from climate change,” said Bill Hare, Greenpeace International’s climate policy campaign director.

“The only way we can avoid the scenarios predicted is for governments around the world to agree to substantially reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.”

Source: Agence France Presse

Activists decry development policy of rich nations

By Gustavo Capdevila

Geneva, Switzerland, Sept. 26 (IPS)— Environmental activists criticized the governments from the world’s wealthy regions Wednesday, charging that they are short-sighted in setting their objectives for global sustainable development and are primarily concerned with maintaining the status quo in international trade.

The ministerial meeting of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) this week in Geneva has opted to put trade above people and the planet, charges Daniel Mittler, of the environmental group Friends of the Earth International.

The ministers from the 55 UNECE member states, coming from Europe, North America and Central Asia, discussed the position that the region will take to the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), to take place next year in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The concept of sustainable development is based on the conviction that current generations should not pursue economic, social or environmental objectives that harm future generations’ potential for development.

The environment ministers of the European countries had put together a draft of a “Global Deal” to present, on behalf of the entire region, at the Johannesburg summit, slated for Sept 2002.

But the Global Deal -- which contains positive elements, according to Friends of the Earth -- did not win the consensus of the ministers gathered in this Swiss city.

The United States delegation blocked approval of the initiative, saying more information on the Global Deal was needed, said the chair of the conference, Joseph Deiss, Switzerland’s minister of foreign relations.

The UNECE, one of the UN’s five regional economic commissions, organized this week’s two-day meeting in order to begin assessing progress made in sustainable development since the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. This review process, which is also known as Rio+10, involves the other regions of the world as well, and will culminate at the Johannesburg Summit.

The concept of the Global Deal arose out of increasing awareness that “unsolved problems such as persistent poverty in many parts of the world, violations of basic rights, an increasing number of conflicts, and global environmental changes endanger the long-term survival of humanity,” stated Deiss.

The Global Deal takes into account the numerous problems that countries and regions face, and commits each country to making its own contribution, based on its potential, toward meeting the challenge of sustainable development, he said.

The initiative includes “debt relief and market access for developing countries, and a commitment to break the link between economic growth and environmental degradation.”

Other points in the proposal call for increased development assistance and the reaffirmation of adherence to the Rio Declaration and other international environmental agreements, including the Kyoto Protocol, which sets country-specific targets for reducing emissions of climate changing gases.

Friends of the Earth lamented that the governments represented at the meeting did not make a greater effort to approve the EU’s Global Deal, “which was the only substantive new idea at the negotiations.”

Also falling by the wayside were targets for renewable energy and the “precautionary principle,” which establishes that the absence of absolute scientific certainty should not serve as a pretext to delay the adoption of measures to prevent environmental degradation.

The group also calls for effective environmental governance and concerted action by “over-consuming countries” on their ecological debt to the developing South.