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Greenhouse Gas Emission Cuts Need to be Bigger Now!
Image Source: Stock.Xchng. By: Rybson.
Greenhouse gas emission cuts need to be bigger and they need to be bigger now; not next year, not 20 or 50 years down the line. Now.
UNEP claims insufficient commitments have been made since the COP-15 failure. Although a last-minute “Accord” was drawn up at the conference, which set the necessary 2 C (3.6 F) goal, it did not explain how this goal would be achieved and anyone who even bothered to pledge emissions only did it voluntarily.
Adrian Steiner, director of UNEP, stated:
“No one should assume that the pledges will be enough.” … “Countries will have to be far more ambitious in cutting greenhouse gas emissions if the world is to curb a rise in global temperature.”
A number of nations are claiming they will gladly make bigger cuts—if other major powers do the same. One example of this is the European Union, which pledged to cut its emissions by 30% by 2020, compared to 1990 levels. Unfortunately, these other major powers, such as the US and China, have yet to step up and make some real emission cutbacks, rather than the paltry amounts they’ve slapped us with.
Recently, an annual UNEP meeting was held on the Indonesian island of Bali. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono made it clear to all at the meeting that the clock is ticking and a global treaty on climate change must succeed the Kyoto Protocol. He also commented that “we have to conclude the climate change negotiations in Mexico at the end of the year. I think it is not too late”.
This year, 2 climate change events are scheduled. One will be happening rather soon (April 9th) in Bonn, Germany; while the other isn’t scheduled until the end of the year (November 29th) for Cancun, Mexico. I certainly hope a global treaty will be forged by the Mexico negotiations; though putting one into effect by the Bonn event would be an even greater achievement. It’s the least the world governments could do after the fiasco in Copenhagen, not to mention they owe it to the planet they live on.
By Heidi Marshall
Tags: Bali, climate change, Copenhagen Accord, emission cuts, global warming, greenhouse gas emissions, Kyoto Protocol, UNEP, world governments
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