BONN, Germany - U.S. and Russian greenhouse gas emissions rose in 2005, more than canceling out a dip in the European Union’s emissions despite growing calls to limit global warming, official data shows.
Combined emissions by the United States, Russia and the EU, accounting for about half the world total, rose by 0.4 percent to 14.55 billion tons in 2005 from 2004, according to data compiled by Reuters from the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat.
“Emissions trends are continuing upwards, which contradicts political rhetoric globally,” Bill Hare, a Greenpeace adviser who also works at German Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, said during 166-nation U.N. climate talks in Bonn.
And experts say that emissions by developing nations led by China and India, which do not have to report 2005 data to the Bonn-based Secretariat, are rising far faster as they use more coal and oil to power their fast-growing economies.
A report by U.N. climate panel last week said the world was running out of time to make the deep cuts needed to combat global warming, which could bring widening droughts, heatwaves, floods, spread disease and push up world sea levels.
It said world emissions would have to peak by 2015 and fall by 50 to 85 percent by 2050 to reach a goal of limiting temperature rises to 2 to 2.4 Celsius (3.6 to 8.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.
“Deep emissions cuts by industrialized countries are needed,” Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, told 1,000 delegates at the opening of the May 7-18 talks in Bonn on ways to slow warming.
And Germany wants to use a meeting of leading industrialized and developing nations it will host next month to push for new commitments to cap greenhouse gases.
U.S. RISE
U.S. data submitted to the Secretariat show emissions rose by 0.7 percent in 2005 to a record 7.24 billion tons and were 16.3 percent above 1990 levels.
Russia’s report shows that emissions, which plunged with the collapse of Soviet-era smokestack industries in the 1990s, rose by 2.2 percent in 2005 to 2.13 billion tons. But they were still 28.7 percent below 1990 levels.
Emissions by 27 EU members dipped by 0.8 percent to 5.18 billion tons and were 8.0 percent below 1990 levels, with big 2005 cuts by Germany, Finland and the Netherlands.
“The figures could still be adjusted slightly,” said Andreas Barkman of the European Environment Agency.
The United States, the EU and Russia are the main emitters among industrialized societies. Nations including Japan and Canada have not sent in data for 2005.
The European Union and Russia are signatories of the U.N.’s Kyoto Protocol, which seeks to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by 35 industrialized nations by 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12 in a first small step to slow warming.
President George W. Bush opposes Kyoto-style caps on emissions, saying they would cost jobs, but is trying to cut the amount of carbon dioxide emitted per dollar of economic output by 18 percent in the decade to 2012.
Washington says it is on track to reach that goal. Some U.S. states, such as California, and cities are embracing Kyoto-style caps. A 1992 U.N. climate convention, backed by Washington, set a non-binding goal of limiting emissions to 1990 levels by 2000.
© Reuters Ltd. 2007
Re: “President George W. Bush opposes Kyoto-style caps on emissions, saying they would cost jobs, but is trying to cut the amount of carbon dioxide emitted per dollar of economic output by 18 percent in the decade to 2012.”
Wonderful, but don’t we need something like four times that amount cut to keep from all but ensuring the end of glaciers and about 1/3 or more of the bio-diversity of this planet? 18% is very much an F letter grade.
That 18 percent is even worse than it sounds: it’s not a flat cut, but a RATE tied to economic growth. In other words, the more the economy grows — even if the RATE of emissions remains the same — actual output of carbon dioxide in tons could rise. (That also doesn’t take into account other more potent greenhouse gases like methane, which is a significant by-product of livestock farming and the resulting manure that accumulates in open pits or hills.)
Everyone is too addicted to money, luxury, and convenience, even “progressives”. There is no hope in “solving” this problem, population is too enormous, and growing, and everyone wants their cake and wants to eat it too. And we are all going to eat it because of selfish greedy adults acting like children. GIVE UP YOUR CAR, GIVE UP YOUR CONSUMER CONSUMPTION, CUTTING BACK ON EVERYTHING IS THE ONLY ANSWER.. There is no arguing this, if you do you are only compromising the planet for your own petty comfort because you are too spoiled and weak to give up anything. MIDDLE AMERICA SUCKS, WEALTHY AMERICA SUCKS, liberals in Land Rovers and republicons in big trucks are all the same problem, spoiled fat selfish greedy self righteous brainwashed idiots
Support planned parenthood or bring back the neutron bomb.
In line with comments above, Al Bartlett, sometimes called the “father of sustainability,” and perhaps the clearest thinker on many of these issues wrote an excellent article on the failure to include population growth in the climate change discussion. I reviewed it not long ago. Until we do include population in the discussion, we’re going to have a great deal of trouble solving this problem and are unlikely to be able to reduce consumption levels fast enough to keep up with the growth of population.
http://growthmadness.org/
Hey everyone - go to www.HAARP.net
The military industry is what is killing us all!!! Yes, we all do things that disturb the planet and yes, we all need to change our destructive habits. Yes, we need to cut greenhouse emissions!! Yes, we need to control the population growth. AS IMPORTANT - we need to stop the military war machine. And not just the visible manifestation of that machine (killing each other). We need to stop the machine that conducts the research that is killing the atmosphere in order to prepare of the next manifestation of war.
Here are the conclusions of Rosalie Bertell, PhD and NUN about the HAARP project - run jointly by the US Air Force and the US Navy. Read them and be HORRIFIED. And then stop the military!! Not just “bring home the troops” but STOP THE WAR MACHINE!
1 — It would be rash to assume that HAARP is an isolated experiment which would not be expanded. It is related to fifty years of intensive and increasingly destructive programs to understand and control the upper atmosphere.
2 — It would be rash not to associate HAARP with the space laboratory construction which is separately being planned by the United States. HAARP is an integral part of a long history of space research and development of a deliberate military nature.
3 — The military implications of combining these projects is alarming.
4 — Basic to this project is control of communications, both disruption and reliability in hostile environments. The power wielded by such control is obvious.
5 — The ability of the HAARP / Spacelab / rocket combination to deliver very large amount of energy, comparable to a nuclear bomb, anywhere on earth via laser and particle beams, are frightening.
6 — The project is likely to be “sold” to the public as a space shield against incoming weapons, or, for the more gullible, a devise for repairing the ozone layer.
This is MADNESS!! And I’m not trying to get into gender wars here, but in the main, it is madness perpetuated by male energy (whether that energy comes disguised in a male body or female body is NOT the issue). Come on female energy - step up, be strong, and take the lead on stopping this madness. The yin and yang energy has been out of balance for thousands of years - to the ultimate destruction of Mother Earth - who has given us gifts that we do not deserve. It’s time to bring back the balance.
STOP THE WAR MACHINE!!!!