Bloomberg : The U.S., China and India should agree to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s proposal to cut greenhouse gas emissions by half by 2050, Japan’s Foreign Minister Taro Aso said.
Abe made the proposal yesterday as a new framework to replace the Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2012 and will discuss it at the Group of Eight summit next month. The U.S., the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, rejected the Kyoto Protocol and China and India are not signatories.
“The current situation where major emitters such as China, India and the U.S. are not joining is not effective,” Aso said at a regular news conference in Tokyo today.
The United Nations panel on climate change has issued two reports this year saying global warming is “very likely” caused by human activities, including the release of gases from burning fossil fuels, and that rising temperatures will cause increased floods and droughts, potentially displacing millions of people.
A third report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said greenhouse gases can be kept at levels that avoid the worst ravages of global warming by using available technologies and strategies. The panel’s work is designed to feed into government policy on tackling climate change.
Agreeing to Targets
The Kyoto Protocol, reached in 1997 in Japan’s ancient capital, requires 35 countries to cut their carbon emissions from 1990 levels by 5.2 percent by 2012.
Aso said in Tokyo he hopes all countries will agree with the target proposed by Abe.
Climate change will be one of the main topics at the summit of the G-8 industrialized nations next month in Germany.
The U.S. has requested changes to the G-8’s declaration on the issue that eliminate some targets for reducing greenhouse gases and delete language stressing the need for urgent action.
The proposed revisions are in a draft copy of the statement obtained by Bloomberg News earlier this month. The document, dated last month, includes portions that the U.S. has requested be crossed out when a final version is released at the end of the G-8 summit scheduled for June 6-8 in Heiligendamm, Germany.
Aso said today the U.S. is coming round to the idea of tackling global warming. He said Japanese technology can help other nations reduce carbon gas emissions, including the building of nuclear power plants.
The world economy emitted more carbon dioxide per economic unit in 2004 than in 2000, indicating an increasing reliance on more-polluting fuels, researchers said in a paper published on May 22 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S.
Source : Bloomberg.com
May 25th, 2007
UK tops energy wasters league
Britons are the worst energy wasters in Europe with bad habits which could cost £11bn by 2010, a survey of Europe’s five most populous nations suggests.
Leaving mobile phone chargers plugged in, appliances on standby and lights on are among their most common failings.
If the levels of wastage continue, an extra 43m tonnes of carbon dioxide will be pumped into the atmosphere by then, the Energy Saving Trust said.
It interviewed 5,000 people in the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy.
Figures in the Habits of a Lifetime report, commissioned to mark the start of Energy Saving Week, said 71% of UK consumers admit to leaving standby buttons on once a week.
Meanwhile, 65% of UK consumers leave chargers on once a week and 63% forget to switch the lights off when leaving the room.
The comparison with German consumers, who top the energy efficiency league, reveals major differences.
Britons leave chargers on three times as much as Germans, they leave standby buttons on twice as much and forget to switch off lights four times as much.
Almost half (48%) of Britons admit to using the car for short journeys rather than public transport, walking or cycling.
The Spanish were said to be the next most efficient users of energy after Germany, followed by France and Italy.
Gender gap
Philip Sellwood, EST chief executive, said: “As a result of this research, we are calling on the nation to undertake a series of daily habit-changing actions during energy saving week.
It is clear from the study we can’t band everyone as ‘a consumer’. The aim will be to galvanise the nation into breaking their energy habits one by one.”
Within the UK, a number of interesting statistics emerged concerning age and gender.
Both men and women admitted about 32 energy wasting actions per week although 20% of males felt no guilt compared with 9% of the opposite sex.
Mild guilt
The survey found 27% of those aged 65 and over felt no guilt about the energy they use and its impact on the local environment.
According to interviews with their parents, 72% of children aged 16 and under regularly leave the lights on and almost two-thirds always leave computers, TVs and stereos on standby.
However, about a quarter of 18 to 24-year-olds do feel moderately guilty about the impact their energy use has on the environment.
More than half of those surveyed (57%) said they would support the government introducing “environmental health” warnings on products which are not energy efficient while 49% believe more advice on energy efficiency should be available.
‘Rising emissions’
Friends of the Earth, meanwhile, has called on more action from the government on climate change.
“We’re not going to save the world by turning our TVs off standby,” said the lobby group’s parliamentary campaigner Martyn Williams.
According to FoE analysis of official data, UK carbon dioxide emissions rose in the first half of the year and are higher than when Labour came to power in 1997.
The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said the UK has one of the best records of any country in tackling emissions.
“We are on target to cut CO2 emissions by 16% by 2010, but accept we need to do more to meet our 20% domestic target by 2010,” a spokesman said.
“That is why we introduced new policies and measures. These will take time to kick in but by 2010 they will be delivering reductions.”
Source:bbc News UK
February 10th, 2007
