[sustran] Rich 'can pay poor to cut carbon'
Todd Edelman, Green Idea Factory
edelman at greenidea.info
Wed Aug 22 19:15:29 JST 2007
* Rich 'can pay poor to cut carbon'*
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/6957328.stm
Rich nations should be absolved from the need to cut emissions if they
pay developing countries to do it on their behalf, a senior UN official
has said.* *
The controversial suggestion from Yvo de Boer, head of the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), has angered environmental groups.
They say climate change will not be solved unless rich and poor nations
both cut emissions together.
But Mr de Boer said the challenge was so great that action was needed now.
* Carbon credits *
The UN's binding global climate agreement, the Kyoto Protocol, currently
requires industrialised nations to reduce the majority of emissions
themselves.
But Mr de Boer said this was illogical, adding that the scale of the
problem facing the world meant that countries should be allowed to
invest in emission cuts wherever in the world it was cheapest.
"We have been reducing emissions and making energy use more efficient in
industrialised countries for a long time," he told BBC News.
"So it is quite expensive in these nations to reduce emissions any more.
"But in developing nations, less has been done to reduce emissions and
less has been done to address energy efficiency," Mr de Boer observed.
"So it actually becomes economically quite attractive for a company, for
example in the UK, that has a target to achieve this goal by reducing
emissions in China."
He said rich nations should be able to buy their way out of 100% of
their responsibilities - though he doubted that any country would want
to do so.
Green groups said the proposal was against the spirit of the UN, which
agreed that wealthy countries - who were responsible for climate change
- should do most to cure it.
Mike Childs from Friends of the Earth said: "This proposal simply won't
deliver the cuts we need in time. The scientists are telling us that we
need to cut carbon dioxide (CO2) by 50-80% by 2050.
"Unless rich countries start to wean themselves off fossil fuels right
away this won't happen."
Doug Parr of Greenpeace was equally critical of Mr de Boer's suggestion.
"The current trading system is not delivering emissions reductions as it
is," he said. "Expanding it like this to give rich countries a
completely free hand will simply not work."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/6957328.stm
Published: 2007/08/22 06:39:54 GMT
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Todd Edelman
Director
Green Idea Factory
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