US and Australia 'falling short' on climate goals, Stern says

May 13, 2009, 9:35 GMT

Brussels - The United States and Australia are still not doing enough to help prevent catastrophic climate change, one of the world's top experts on the subject said Wednesday.

'If you just look at the arithmetic ... the current positions in the US and Australia fall short' of what is needed to make sure that global emissions of greenhouse gases peak by 2015 and decline thereafter, Lord Nicholas Stern told journalists in Brussels.

Stern's comments come just seven months before a crunch United Nations conference on global warming in Copenhagen, where world leaders hope to agree legally-binding targets for cutting emissions.

Experts say that a deal will only be likely if the US signs up to major emissions cuts, since developing states such as China and India say that they will not agree to significant cuts unless the US does.

But Stern added on world powers not to underestimate recent efforts to fight global warming in the US and Australia, pointing out that both countries are 'struggling with a delayed start' and that the world should 'recognise how much they have moved.'

Stern is the author of one of the world's most influential analyses of the economic impact of climate change, which he published in 2006. He was speaking after talks with the head of the EU's executive, Jose Manuel Barroso, and the leader of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rajendra Pachauri.

Pachauri said that the stance of new US President Barack Obama gives him 'enormous hope' that the US would make a 'tangible effort' before the Copenhagen talks.

Both experts said that the world's richest powers must help the developing world to reduce its emissions, especially China, which is now the the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases.

'The movement in China is very clear and strong, but we must help ... particularly in technology, and developing and sharing technology with China,' Stern said.

And they praised the EU for its ground-breaking agreement to cut greenhouse-gas emissions to 20 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020 even if there is no deal in Copenhagen.

Europe's leadership has been 'fundamental,' and if that leadership 'becomes fragile, the knock-on effect will be very large,' Stern said.