February 11, 2009 5:24 PM
- Text
U.S., Australia Pushed To Ink Kyoto Pact
(CBS/AP)
Officials and environmentalists pressed the United States and Australia to sign the Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and urged other governments to cut pollution after a U.N. report warned of catastrophic global warming.
Maldives Foreign Minister Ahmed Saeed said rising oceans could devastate low-lying countries like his coral island nation, which is three feet above sea level in the Indian Ocean.
"If the sea level rises permanently, it will submerge the whole country forever," Saeed said.
Indonesian Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar predicted that the sea will swallow about 2,000 of his country's estimated 18,000 islands within three decades.
"Developing countries must make binding commitments to cut emissions by 40 to 60 percent," he said in the capital, Jakarta, where torrential rain has caused massive flooding in the past few days.
"And we in Indonesia must guard against the burning of our forests and better monitor our industries," he said.
South Africa's Environmental Affairs Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk described the report as "a wake-up call to the world's largest emitter, the United States."
The United States and Australia are the only industrialized countries that have refused to commit to Kyoto emission targets for reducing heat-trapping greenhouse gas pollution.
But U.S. President George W. Bush's administration and Australian Prime Minister John Howard stood fast against mandatory targets despite the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, reporting Friday that there is a 90 percent certainty that human activity has caused escalating temperatures, glacial melting and rising oceans.
U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman warned of possible "unintended consequences" — including job losses — if the government puts caps on carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels.
Bodman said technological advancements will cut emissions, promote conservation and hasten the development of non-fossil fuels.
But Democrats newly in control of the U.S. Congress said Mr. Bush's administration should do more to combat global warming.
At the United Nations, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., the head of the Senate Environment Committee, said the president should show "real leadership" on the issue by convening "a summit at the White House of the 12 largest global-warming emitters."
The U.S. each year contributes about a quarter of the world's greenhouse gases, though the share from China, India and other developing countries is growing.
There was no immediate reaction to the IPCC report from China, which is expected to surpass the U.S. as the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter in the next decade.
In India — another country of more 1 billion people that faces the challenge of how to develop economically without ruining its environment — an official said the climate change panel is "a network of scientists" who cannot set policy.
"This is a group of climate experts attempting to reach a scientific consensus. It doesn't commit governments to any course of action," said Pradipto Ghosh of India's Ministry of Environment and Forests.
Australian leader Howard dismissed the Kyoto pact and renewable energy sources like wind or solar power as ways to fight climate change, arguing that Australia must take the unpopular step of introducing nuclear power.
"Let's be realistic. You can only run power stations in a modern Western economy on fossil fuel, or, in time, nuclear power," Howard told reporters Saturday.
Opposition leader Kevin Rudd, who will take his center-left Labor Party into elections later this year, said Australia has to sign the Kyoto deal, use renewable energy sources more and create a national strategy to reduce electricity consumption.
A Japanese newspaper editorial criticized developing economies for failing to share the responsibility of reducing greenhouse gases.
"Although countries like China and India are major polluters, they are not obliged to cut emissions just because they are still developing," the Mainichi Shimbun said. "But those countries, as major polluters, have a global responsibility to cut down."
The landmark IPCC report, from the world's leading climate scientists and government officials, said global warming is "unequivocal," "very likely" man-made and will "continue for centuries" — findings bleaker than its last report in 2001.
Maldives Foreign Minister Ahmed Saeed said rising oceans could devastate low-lying countries like his coral island nation, which is three feet above sea level in the Indian Ocean.
"If the sea level rises permanently, it will submerge the whole country forever," Saeed said.
Indonesian Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar predicted that the sea will swallow about 2,000 of his country's estimated 18,000 islands within three decades.
"Developing countries must make binding commitments to cut emissions by 40 to 60 percent," he said in the capital, Jakarta, where torrential rain has caused massive flooding in the past few days.
"And we in Indonesia must guard against the burning of our forests and better monitor our industries," he said.
South Africa's Environmental Affairs Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk described the report as "a wake-up call to the world's largest emitter, the United States."
The United States and Australia are the only industrialized countries that have refused to commit to Kyoto emission targets for reducing heat-trapping greenhouse gas pollution.
But U.S. President George W. Bush's administration and Australian Prime Minister John Howard stood fast against mandatory targets despite the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, reporting Friday that there is a 90 percent certainty that human activity has caused escalating temperatures, glacial melting and rising oceans.
U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman warned of possible "unintended consequences" — including job losses — if the government puts caps on carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels.
Bodman said technological advancements will cut emissions, promote conservation and hasten the development of non-fossil fuels.
But Democrats newly in control of the U.S. Congress said Mr. Bush's administration should do more to combat global warming.
At the United Nations, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., the head of the Senate Environment Committee, said the president should show "real leadership" on the issue by convening "a summit at the White House of the 12 largest global-warming emitters."
The U.S. each year contributes about a quarter of the world's greenhouse gases, though the share from China, India and other developing countries is growing.
There was no immediate reaction to the IPCC report from China, which is expected to surpass the U.S. as the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter in the next decade.
In India — another country of more 1 billion people that faces the challenge of how to develop economically without ruining its environment — an official said the climate change panel is "a network of scientists" who cannot set policy.
"This is a group of climate experts attempting to reach a scientific consensus. It doesn't commit governments to any course of action," said Pradipto Ghosh of India's Ministry of Environment and Forests.
Australian leader Howard dismissed the Kyoto pact and renewable energy sources like wind or solar power as ways to fight climate change, arguing that Australia must take the unpopular step of introducing nuclear power.
"Let's be realistic. You can only run power stations in a modern Western economy on fossil fuel, or, in time, nuclear power," Howard told reporters Saturday.
Opposition leader Kevin Rudd, who will take his center-left Labor Party into elections later this year, said Australia has to sign the Kyoto deal, use renewable energy sources more and create a national strategy to reduce electricity consumption.
A Japanese newspaper editorial criticized developing economies for failing to share the responsibility of reducing greenhouse gases.
"Although countries like China and India are major polluters, they are not obliged to cut emissions just because they are still developing," the Mainichi Shimbun said. "But those countries, as major polluters, have a global responsibility to cut down."
The landmark IPCC report, from the world's leading climate scientists and government officials, said global warming is "unequivocal," "very likely" man-made and will "continue for centuries" — findings bleaker than its last report in 2001.
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