Scientists call for climate action; US says no to caps at Bali

Dec 6, 2007, 11:34 GMT

Bali Island, Indonesia - More than 100 of the world's leading climate researchers called Thursday at a UN climate conference for the drafting of an ambitious treaty, saying there is no doubt climate change is occurring and it has devastating consequences.

They said in a statement that global warming, linked to emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, must be kept under 2 degrees Celsius to avoid the worst effects of global warming, such as the melting of the polar ice caps, extreme weather such as storms and floods, drought and desertification.

To do so, greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced at least 50 per cent from 1990 levels by 2050, according to current scientific understanding, the researchers from 26 countries said.

'As scientists, we urge the negotiators to reach an agreement that takes these targets as a minimum requirement for a fair and effective global climate agreement,' they wrote.

A country often criticized for obstructing efforts to roll back climate change, the United States, said Thursday that it would not agree to specific targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the UN climate conference under way on Bali.

Harlan Watson, the head of its delegation there, said, however, that the United States would host a separate dialogue of the world's largest greenhouse gas emitters, continuing talks in 2008 that were begun in September in Washington.

'Clear numbers' could be discussed at those talks, he said in Nusa Dua, the site of the UN conference.

The US-hosted talks were not being held in competition with the UN negotiations but are meant to support the wider discussions, Watson said.

The European Union and other countries wants the Bali conference to set a goal for industrialized countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 25 to 40 per cent by 2020.

Watson, however, said the United States would stick by its guns. 'We are not changing our position,' he said.

The United States has long been the biggest greenhouse gas emitter in the world and also has long baulked at agreeing to binding cuts, refusing, for instance, to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.

It has been joined by oil producer Saudi Arabia and developing countries in rejected binding emissions targets. Developing countries said they fear such cuts would curb their economic growth.

The Bali talks, which began Monday and are to continue through December 14, are seen as the launch of two years of talks to negotiate a new emissions-limiting treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

Specific goals on emissions reductions could be determined at a later stage of the UN talks, Watson said.

'We don't need to get into the numbers game at the front end,' he argued.