U.N. talks drop 2020 greenhouse gas cut targets - Reuters

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

U.N. talks drop 2020 greenhouse gas cut targets
Mon Dec 10, 2007 4:44am EST

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) - U.N. climate talks in
Bali dropped a tough 2020 target on Monday for rich
nations to cut greenhouse gases after opposition led by
the United States, a delegate said.

The latest draft of an accord for the 190-nation
December 3-14 meeting, which is seeking to launch two
years of negotiations on a new pact to slow global
warming, dropped a goal of cuts in emissions of 25-40
percent below 1990 levels by 2020.

"The numbers are out of the latest text," one delegate
said, adding that the United States had led opposition
along with countries including Japan and Canada. The
2020 goal for rich nations had been in the draft
proposal on Saturday.

(Editing by David Fogarty)


Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL1064001320071210

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Source: Reuters

U.S rejects stiff 2020 greenhouse goals in Bali
Mon Dec 10, 2007 2:39am EST

By Emma Graham-Harrison

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) - Washington rejected
stiff 2020 targets for greenhouse gas cuts by rich
nations at U.N. talks in Bali on Monday as part of a
"roadmap" to work out a new global pact to fight
climate change by 2009.

"It's prejudging what the outcome should be," chief
negotiator Harlan Watson said of a draft suggesting
that rich nations should aim to axe emissions of heat-
trapping gases by between 25 and 40 percent below
1990 levels by 2020.

He said that Washington wanted the December 3-14
talks, of 190 nations with more than 10,000
delegates, to end on Friday with an accord to start
two years of negotiations on a new global climate
treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012.

-snip-

"We don't want to start out with numbers," Watson
told a news conference, adding that the 25-40 percent
range was based on "many uncertainties" and a small
number of scientific studies by the U.N. Climate Panel,
a Nobel Peace Prize winner.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSFLE01128620071210