Greenhouse Gases Hit Record High in Industrialized Countries

Greenhouse Gases Hit Record High in Industrialized Countries



November 2007 
 The total greenhouse gas 
emissions of 40 industrialized nations rose to an all-time high in 2005, 
continuing the upward trend of the year before, according to data 
submitted to the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on 
Climate Change. 
The increases came from the continued economic growth in highly 
industrialized countries as well as the revived economic growth in former 
European East bloc nations. 
Emissions from the transport sector grew at the highest rate. 

Taken together, the countries that signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol 
are projected to achieve reductions on the order of 11 percent for the 
first Kyoto commitment period, from 2008 to 2012, provided policies and 
measures adopted by these countries deliver the reductions as projected. 
The Kyoto Protocol commits industrialized countries to a five percent 
reduction target in 2008-2012 compared to 1990 levels. 
But while the European Union as a whole is projected to achieve its 
objective making use of the Kyoto mechanisms such as emissions trading, 
other Kyoto Parties are projected to see an upward trend in emissions, the 
secretariat said. 
"For the totality of Kyoto signatory countries, reductions of 15 percent 
are feasible should additional policies be planned and implemented," said 
Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UNFCCC. "But we should not hide 
the fact that there is continuing greenhouse gas emissions growth on the 
part of several countries and that they must do more to rein in their 
emissions." 
This year's United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place in Bali 
Indonesia from December 3 to 14 will be presided over by Indonesian 
Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar, with support from the UN's Climate 
Change Secretariat. 
The main goal of the conference is to launch negotiations on a new 
international climate change agreement. More than 10,000 participants are 
expected to attend. 
The conference will not deliver a fully negotiated and agreed climate deal 
but is aimed to set the necessary wheels in motion. Parties are expected 
to agree the key areas which the new agreement should cover, such as 
mitigation including avoided deforestation, adaptation, technology and 
financing. They also are also expected to agree on 2009 as the year the 
negotiations will conclude. 
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has challenged the world's policymakers 
to start devising a comprehensive deal for tackling climate change in Bali 
after a UN report released Saturday found that global warming is 
unequivocal and could cause irreversible damage to the planet. 
Launching the fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on 
Climate Change, IPCC, which brings together hundreds of scientific 
experts, Ban said that slowing and even reversing the effects of climate 
change "is the defining challenge of our age." 
"Concerted and sustained action now can still avoid some of the most 
catastrophic scenarios in the IPCC forecasts," he said. 

"We can transform a necessity into virtue," said the secretary-general. 
"We can pursue new and improved ways to produce, consume and discard. We 
can promote environmentally friendly industries that spur development and 
job creation even as they reduce emissions. We can usher in a new era of 
global partnership, one that helps lift all boats on the rising tide of 
climate-friendly development." 
For this to happen, Ban said the world's industrialized countries must 
form a "grand bargain" with developing nations, which are the most 
vulnerable to the impact of climate change. 
The report details how reduced rainfall in much of Africa is likely to 
aggravate existing water shortages and slash crop yields, rising sea 
levels are set to inundate small island states, and melting glaciers could 
trigger major floods in South Asia and South America. 
More heat waves and periods of heavy rainfall are deemed very likely to 
occur, tropical cyclones are predicted to become more intense and a 
dramatic decrease in the polar ice caps is also expected as air and ocean 
temperatures keep rising. In the worst case scenario, nearly a third of 
all of plant and animal species could be at risk of extinction. 
The IPCC explains that industry, agriculture and infrastructure can become 
far more energy-efficient, water can be more effectively conserved and 
used and countries can become less dependent on fossil fuels and other 
non-renewable sources of energy. 
IPCC Chairman Rajendra Pachauri said governments have "a wide variety of 
policies and instruments" available to create incentives to mitigate 
behavior – especially in the area of carbon emissions. 
"We need a new ethic by which every human being realizes the importance of 
the challenge we are facing and starts to take action through changes in 
lifestyle and attitude," Pachauri said. 
The report, released in Valencia, Spain, is the synthesis of three IPCC 
reports issued earlier this year that examined the scientific basis of 
climate change, the impact it is having and ways to mitigate and adapt to 
the phenomenon. 
To assist governments in their efforts, the UN Climate Change Secretariat 
has put in place comprehensive review processes for emissions data and 
policy-related information, and also established technical infrastructure 
for emissions trading. 
"What is positive is that Parties to the Kyoto Protocol have been taking 
their commitments very seriously in as much they have been putting in 
place policies and infrastructure to support Kyoto implementation, 
including registries for emissions accounting and national systems for the 
assessment of emission levels," said de Boer. "International carbon 
trading can be taken to a higher level next year." 
The Kyoto Protocol has spawned international emissions trading worth 30 
billion dollars in 2006, with the bulk of emissions trading taking place 
within the European Union's emissions trading scheme. This trading system 
will be linked to trading under the Kyoto Protocol next year when the 
first commitment period begins. 
Many countries are preparing to make active use of the Kyoto Protocol's 
flexible mechanisms to reach their goal, which allow industrialized 
countries to meet their emission reduction obligations in a cost-effective 
manner. 
The flexibility mechanisms of the Protocol are emissions trading, the 
clean development mechanism and joint implementation. 
These mechanisms allow industrialized countries to purchase emission 
reductions abroad at lower cost than reducing emissions at home, 
supplementing domestic emission reduction efforts. 

---