VIENNA, SEPTEMBER 1:Negotiators from 158 countries reached basic agreement on Friday on rough targets aimed at getting some of the world’s biggest polluters to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.
A weeklong UN climate conference concluded that industrialised countries should strive to cut emissions by 25 to 40 per cent of their 1990 levels by 2020. Experts said target would serve as a loose guide for a major international climate summit to be held in December in Bali, Indonesia.
“We have reached broad agreement on the main issues,” said Leon Charles, a negotiator from Grenada who helped oversee the Vienna talks. Delegates worked into Friday evening to overcome resistance from several countries— including Canada, Japan and Russia—that preferred a more open approach rather than setting emissions targets. The 2020 targets are not binding, but they were seen as an important signal that industrialised nations are serious about slashing the amount of carbon dioxide and other dangerous gases in an effort to avert the most catastrophic consequences of global warming. Friday’s agreement sought to ease concerns that the emissions target might be too ambitious for some nations, noting that efforts to cut back on airborne pollutants are “determined by national circumstances and evolve over time”.
But it made clear that greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced to “very low levels” to guard against potentially deadly flooding, drought and other fallout.
“Countries have been able to reassess the big picture of what is needed by identifying the key building blocks for an effective response to climate change,” said Yvo de Boer, the UN’s top climate official.
De Boer said the agreement doesn’t let developing countries off the hook.
“Even if industrialised countries do this, it will only be a contribution to the global effort,” he told reporters.
The Bali conference will attempt to forge a new global agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions after 2012, when the 1997 Kyoto Protocol expires.
