News | Climate Change

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2010/0212/1224264272936.html

THE EU is in danger of being overtaken by Australia and Japan in pledging tougher targets for reducing the greenhouse gas emissions blamed by scientists for causing climate change, according to an analysis of the most recent pledges.

The analysis by Point Carbon, a leading independent provider of market intelligence on energy and the environment, examined pledges made by 65 countries under the Copenhagen Accord, which was the outcome of last December’s UN climate summit.
“Even if the EU were to increase its emissions reduction target to 30 per cent of 1990 levels, Japan and Australia are still pledging larger cuts from current emission levels”, said Kjetil Røine, Point Carbon’s manager. “The EU is lagging behind.”
Japan has pledged the most ambitious 2020 target among developed countries, with a 31 per cent reduction on 2007 levels, while Australia’s proposed range represents a 13-31 per cent reduction on 2007, with the upper range as ambitious as Japan’s.
Mr Røine said the EU’s 20 per cent target was also weaker than the pledges from the US and Canada, respectively a 17 per cent and 19 per cent reduction on 2007 levels, which were made in submissions to the UN climate change convention’s secretariat in Bonn.
“We should, however, bear in mind that these are just non-binding pledges [made under the Copenhagen Accord] and the EU is far more advanced when it comes to the implementation of policies and measures to reduce emissions,” he added.
China has pledged to reduce the emissions intensity of its economy by 40 to 45 per cent on 2005 levels by 2020, while India’s target to reduce intensity by 20 to 25 per cent by 2020 falls “short of the Chinese pledge”, said Mr Røine.
The fact that 65 countries had submitted targets and actions to be included in annexes to the Copenhagen Accord was an “indication that there is overall support for continuing negotiations and that there is still political will to reach an agreement”, he said.
UN climate chief Yvo de Boer said the pledges made so far came from countries that together accounted for almost 80 per cent of global emissions from energy use. “This represents an important invigoration of the UN climate change talks,” he said.
“The commitment to confront climate change at the highest level is beyond doubt . . . Greater ambition is required to meet the scale of the challenge. But I see these pledges as clear signals of willingness to move negotiations towards a successful conclusion.”
But Greenpeace International was not so optimistic. It said the pledges made since the Copenhagen summit showed a “slackening” of effort by governments on limiting the increase in global temperature to 2 degrees Celsius. “These commitments mean an average global temperature increase of more than 3 degrees C, compared to pre-industrial times,” said Bernhard Obermayr, of Greenpeace. If this happened, “the environmental and social implications could be catastrophic”.
If developed and developing countries failed to outline how they were going to prevent warming from reaching the agreed threshold of 2 degrees C, “concerned citizens will realise they have just been sold the biggest climate lie of all”, he added.