21 December 2004Mary MillikenThe Star Online
Global warming is set to continue and bring with it an increase in extreme weather such as hurricanes and droughts, scientists from the United Nations' World Meteorological Organisation warned last week.
In its annual report, the WMO said that 2004 would be the fourth-hottest since record-keeping began 150 years ago and global warming would continue with more extreme weather like hurricanes or droughts.
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An unidentified woman placing flags in rubber boots at the main entrance of the 10th International Convention on Climate Change in Argentina, last week. Activists had demonstrated saying rubber boots will not be enough to cope with global warming if the Ministers attending the climate convention do not commit to massive cuts in carbon dioxide emissions. |
"It is, I believe, unquestioned that climate change is happening now and it is happening at an even higher speed than we expected before," said UNEP director Klaus Toepfer.
Overall destruction costs in 2004 will surge to US$95bil (RM361bil) worldwide compared to an average of US$70bil (RM266bil) a year during the last decade.
The alarm bells came as environment ministers from 80 countries concluded a UN conference on climate change in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The conference of nearly 200 nations ended Saturday with few steps forward as the United States, oil producers and developing giants slammed the brakes on the European Union's drive for deeper emissions cuts to stop global warming.
Although negotiators brokered an 11th-hour agreement on two items, the deal fell short of goals to get talks rolling for after 2012, when the Kyoto protocol to cut greenhouse gases runs out.
Just two months before Kyoto goes into force thanks to Russia's recent ratification, the United States has made it very clear it will not sign up for Kyoto's mandatory caps on emissions after President George W. Bush withdrew from the agreement in 2001.
The US delegation has also said repeatedly over the two-week conference that it is "premature" to negotiate anything for when Kyoto expires in 2012.
That stonewalling has earned the United States few friends at this 10th UN meeting, where many of the 6,000 participants wear cords around their necks saying: "No to Bush, Yes to Kyoto".
The Argentine hosts and the EU found a compromise in the form of a seminar for 2005 for an informal exchange of information rather than talks on a post-Kyoto regime.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair will be working to soften Bush on climate change during its G8 presidency next year, but analysts believe he will be unsuccessful. Although responsible for 25% of the world's emissions, the United States rejects legally binding rules that could hurt economic growth.
The US position got a boost from Italy in Buenos Aires as it called for an end to the binding agreements of the Kyoto protocol after 2012 in favour of voluntary targets that would entice the United States, China and India.
Kyoto, which will reduce emissions by 5% in industrialised nations, is only a first step and excludes developing countries like China and India, who are already among the top five polluters.
The European Union, the world leader in the fight to cut heat-trapping gases, tried to quell notions of dissent in its ranks. "What the Italian minister said is quite right. We have to involve the fast-growing developing countries and the United States in the after-2012 regime," said Dutch Environment Minister Pieter van Geel, heading the EU delegation.
EU commissioner for the environment, Stavros Dimas, refused to comment on Italy's suggestion that countries should not be forced to cut down emissions but said that "targets are very important especially for industrialised countries because they can be used to measure results. So in the future we should consider them."
Environmental activists, meanwhile, are exasperated by the lack of urgency at the conference, which they blame on excessive deference to an unwilling United States.
"We could be leaving this city without any achievement," said Gurmit Singh of the Climate Action Network in South-east Asia. – Reuters
