EU climate plan seen spurring U.N. action
Source: Reuters
By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent OSLO, Jan 10 (Reuters) - A European plan for deeper cuts in greenhouse gases by 2020 may spur stalled U.N. talks on fighting global warming and encourage outsiders such as the United States and China to do more, U.N. leaders said on Wednesday. The European Commission said it was proposing what it called the world's most ambitious goal for fighting global warming -- a 20 percent cut in European Union emissions of heat-trapping gases below 1990 levels by 2020. And it said the EU should cut back by as much as 30 percent if other rich nations did so too. "This is a crucial signal to unlock the current situation where countries are saying 'I'll wait and see what you do first'," Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi, told Reuters. "They have shown real leadership," echoed Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Secretariat in Bonn. He urged EU governments to adopt the goals quickly. Under the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol for curbing global warming, the EU has already promised to cut emissions by 8 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12. Annual U.N. climate talks in Kenya in November on widening Kyoto beyond 2012 made little headway. De Boer said developing nations, such as China and India which have no Kyoto goals for 2012, would probably welcome signs that rich nations were starting to set longer-term targets. "Developing countries have been crying out for industrial countries to set targets," he told Reuters. Poorer states say rich nations, the biggest per capita emitters, need to set goals before they even consider making commitments. AFTER BUSH De Boer said the EU plans would be "followed with interest" in the United States, even though President George W. Bush pulled out of Kyoto in 2001, saying it would cost U.S. jobs and wrongly excludes developing nations. Bush, who steps down in 2009, has repeatedly said he will not change policy despite pressure from a Democrat-controlled Congress. Steiner at UNEP said the Commission plan could encourage U.S. businesses and states to set climate goals. "The debate has vaulted beyond the traditional confines of federal government policy," he said. But he noted that many scientists say emissions should be axed to at least 60 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 to avert feared changes such as more floods, heatwaves, disease and rising seas that would cause billions of dollars in damage. "It's not yet enough," he said of the EU targets for 2020. The United States, China, Russia and India are the top national emitters of greenhouse gases. Of the top four, only Russia is part of the Kyoto Protocol. Analysts say it may take until a new U.S. president to give real momentum to U.N. climate talks. "There is no prospect of the United States joining under the Bush administration," said Hermann Ott of the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy in Germany. "Everyone is waiting for the next president." Japan reiterated it would not set new targets any time soon. "Japan does not plan to issue such goals at any time in the near future. The reason is that nations that should be taking part in efforts to reduce greenhouse gases are not doing so yet," a Japanese Environment Ministry official said, listing the United States, China and India. (Additional reporting by Elaine Lies in Tokyo))
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