UN meets to discuss global climate treaty
STOCKHOLM (AP) — Long-running arguments over who needs to do what to stop the planet from overheating are back in focus this week as rich and poor countries meet in Bonn, Germany, to resume talks on a new global climate treaty.
It’s the first major round of talks since countries agreed in Durban, South Africa, in December to come up with a binding agreement by 2015 that would take effect five years later.
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INTERACTIVE: Enhanced ‘greenhouse effect’ causes global warming
In a webcast news conference Monday, U.N. climate chief Christiana Figueres noted that the cuts in greenhouse gas emissions pledged so far fall short of what scientists say is needed to avoid serious effects of global warming.
But she said “bridging the gap is both technically attainable and economically feasible” if rich countries, in particular, raise their ambitions on emissions cuts.
The talks have been hampered by bickering over how to divide such cuts among developing nations, emerging economies and industrialized countries.
That’s not going to be resolved in the two-week negotiations in Bonn or at a bigger climate summit in Qatar at the end of the year.
But climate negotiators hope to build on the modest progress that was achieved last year, like the agreement on a second commitment period for the Kyoto Protocol, a treaty which limits the emissions of most developed countries but which expires at the end of this year. The length of the second commitment period is one of the issues on the table in Bonn.
However, Kyoto plays an increasingly marginal role in the climate puzzle because it doesn’t include the biggest emitters of carbon dioxide and other gases that scientists
Category: Africa News
