Blog about UN Climate Change Conference in Bali 3-14 December 2007 and other related issues

Sunday, October 28, 2007

IPCC: New climate change agreement to be stricter than Kyoto

http://news.xinhuanet.com/
RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- The terms of the international agreement on greenhouse gas emissions that will follow the Kyoto Protocol will be even stricter, economist Mohan Munasinghe, vice president of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said here Friday.

According to Munasinghe, who was participating in a seminar here to discuss the application of the IPCC recommendations locally, stronger international consensus has now been reached on the need for stricter measures.

The new rules that countries all over the world will have to follow in order to avoid runaway global warming will start to be discussed in December in Bali, Indonesia, and will have to be defined by 2009.

The Kyoto Protocol, aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, expires in 2012, and much of what it established has not been followed by the most economically developed countries, especially the United States, which did not sign the document.

"Unfortunately, we know that some of the goals of the document signed in Kyoto will not be accomplished, but the new agreement must be stricter because the evidence of global warming is clearer and there is more pressure from society on politicians to act," said Munasinghe.

The economist pointed out that the U.S. government has been against the adoption of gas emission reduction goals, but "maybe there can be changes in the government."

The seminar, which was due to end Friday, was inaugurated by Brazilian Environment Minister Marina Silva Thursday with the participation of Rio State Governor Sergio Cabral.

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