http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3131285.stm
Last Updated: Thursday,
7 August, 2003, 11:24 GMT 12:24 UK
Kyoto 'will not stop global warming'
QUOTE:
"There may well on paper be other systems which would
also deliver reductions, but the fact is that those
systems remain on paper"
UK Government spokesman
The Kyoto Protocol on cutting greenhouse gas emissions will
not stop climate change, a leading think tank has warned.
The report from the
Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR)
in the UK, which has close links to the government, comes as
some experts cite Britain's heat wave as further evidence of
global warming.
Even if the Kyoto agreement
is fully implemented, greenhouse
gas emissions worldwide will still increase by 70%, says the IPPR.
The think tank wants
a new approach instead of the "horse trading"
over emissions allowed under the treaty, which the government
stresses is the only agreement in place.
Deciding safe
level
The US and Australia
have opted out of the protocol but will
join those nations who have signed in Milan in December for
talks on climate change.
Tony Grayling, associate
director of the IPPR, said:
"Kyoto will not stop climate change.
"The next international
climate change negotiations must
agree on a safe level of emissions in the long term and
fair shares between nations.
"In practice,
this should mean contraction of global emissions
and convergence towards equal per capita emissions rights.
"This approach
also has a better chance of bringing America,
Australia and the developing nations on board."
Only show in
town?
Mr Grayling urged the
government to come clean about its acceptance
of advice from the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution.
The commission in 2000
said the UK needed to cut its carbon dioxide
emissions by 60% by 2050.
Mr Grayling added:
"Future international climate change policy
should be based on sound science and social justice, not the horse
trading that characterised the negotiations for the Kyoto Protocol."
A spokesman for the
Department for Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs said: "Kyoto remains the only internationally agreed
method which will deliver reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
"There may well
on paper be other systems which would also
deliver reductions, but the fact is that those systems remain
on paper."
Australian
doubts
UK officials hope Russia
will soon be able to ratify the
Kyoto Protocol, which only comes into force after that
ratification.
Professor John Whitelegg,
Professor of Sustainable Development
at the University of York, said the Green Party had always
argued the protocol would achieve nothing without meaningful
targets.
Professor Whitelegg,
who is tipped to take up a leading role
in the Green Party, said: "Blair and Prescott have boasted
about 'leading the world' in terms of Kyoto.
"But all they'd
done was agree to a treaty aimed at 5% carbon
dioxide reductions by 2012, with slightly higher but still
completely inadequate targets for the UK.
"Since then they've
acknowledged that stopping climate change
means achieving 60% carbon dioxide reductions globally by 2050,
but in typical New Labour style they've called this an 'aspiration'."
He added: "New
Labour has completely failed to grasp that
60% global reductions means a 90% reduction in high-polluting
countries like the UK."
Earlier this week Australia's
top government scientist echoed
the view that the Kyoto Protocol would not stop climate change.
Graeme Pearman, chief
scientist at the Australian CSIRO
research body, said: "Slowing the rate of emissions of carbon
dioxide into the atmosphere will not stop the increase of its
concentration and thus climate change.
"We can show that
reductions of 70% or more in current global
emissions are necessary in order to stabilise concentrations.
This is an enormous challenge."
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