BONN – The Associated Press
Bad news awaits delegates from about 180 countries at the start of two weeks of climate talks beginning Monday to debate a new global warming accord.
Greenhouse gas emissions are going up instead of down despite 20 years of effort, hitting record highs, according to a new report by the International Energy Agency.
Other unpleasant topics facing the conference in Bonn include the tsunami-triggered nuclear disaster in March, which apparently has sidelined Japan’s aggressive policies to combat climate change. It also prompted countries like Germany to hasten the decommissioning of nuclear power stations which, regardless of other drawbacks, have nearly zero carbon emissions.
“Japan’s energy future is in limbo,” said analyst Endre Tvinnereim of the consultancy firm Point Carbon. The fallout from the catastrophe has “put climate policy further down the priority list,” and the short-term effect in Japan, one of the world’s most carbon-efficient countries, will be burning more fossil fuels, he added.
Despite the expansion of renewable energy around the world, the Paris-based IEA’s report said energy-related carbon emissions last year topped 30 gigatons, 5 percent more than the previous record in 2008. With energy investments locked into coal- and oil-fueled infrastructure, the situation will change little over the next decade.
Fatih Birol, the IEA’s chief economist, said the energy trend should be “a wake-up call.” The figures are “a serious setback” to hopes of limiting the rise in the Earth’s average temperature to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, he said.
Any rise beyond that, scientists believe, could lead to catastrophic climate shifts affecting water supplies and global agriculture, setting off more frequent and fierce storms and causing a rise in sea levels, which would endanger coastlines.
The June 6-17 discussions in Bonn will prepare for the annual year-end decision-making United Nations conference, which this year is in Durban, South Africa. Even more than previous conferences, Durban could be the forum for a major showdown between wealthy countries and the developing world.
Poor countries say the wealthy West, whose industries overloaded the atmosphere with carbon dioxide and other climate-changing gases over the last 200 years, is not doing enough to cut future pollution.
A study released Sunday supports that view.
The report, based on an analysis by the Stockholm Environment Institute commissioned and released by Oxfam, evaluated national pledges to cut carbon emissions submitted after the 2009 Copenhagen climate summit. It found that developing countries account for 60 percent of the promised reductions.
(Source: www.hurriyetdailynews.com )