Climate Change
November 20, 2007
New data released on Tuesday, Nov. 20 by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has projected that by 2012, the industrial nations that signed and ratified the Kyoto convention are on track to emit 10.8 percent less greenhouse gasses than they did in 1990.
The European Union as a whole is on track to meet its Kyoto targets, but only by making use of mechanisms such as emissions trading, according to the report. Britain, France, Germany and Sweden are the only pre-enlargement EU-15 countries expected to meet the 2012 goal without implementing additional measures.
The Kyoto Protocol commits 36 industrialized countries to a five percent reduction target from 2008 to 2012 compared to 1990.
Industrial countries' emissions surging
However, the total greenhouse gas emissions from the world's industrialized nations has been growing since 2000, reaching a near-record in 2005 and continuing to move upward. Reductions between 1990 and 2000 lead to an overall reduction for some Kyoto signers, despite the upward swing that followed.
"Greenhouse-gas emissions between 1990 and 2000 went down, but then between 2000 and 2005 they increased again, by 2.6 percent," UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer said Tuesday at a press conference held in Bonn, Germany's former capital.
The UNFCCC blamed continued growth in Western economies and a revival of growth in former East Bloc nations, with pollution from transport being the biggest culprit in any sector.
The United States, which is the world's biggest producer of greenhouse gases but has refused to sign the Kyoto agreement, emitted 16.3 percent more greenhouse gases in 2005 than in 1990, the report noted.
"Emissions trends around the world and especially in industrialized countries are worrying," de Boer said.
Kyoto to be discussed on Bali
The UNFCCC presented its emissions data findings two weeks ahead of a United Nations climate conference on Bali, Indonesia, at which negotiations on a post-Kyoto deal are expected to be launched. Representatives from more than 180 countries, together with researchers and observers, will attend the conference.
De Boer set a triple benchmark to judge Bali's success. "If there is a decision to launch negotiations, if an agenda for negotiations is agreed and if an end-date (for completing negotiations) is set, then I would consider Bali to be a success," he said.
"Anything less than that would be either short of success or a failure."