Crunch year for planet Earth
Pastor Dale Morgan
Crunch year for planet Earth*
POSTED: 1553 GMT (2353 HKT), January 18, 2007
Story Highlights
• Environmentalist: 2007 a crucial year for combating climate change
• Scientists move 'Doomsday Clock' forward because of global warming
• First of 4 scientific reports expected in early February
• EU-U.S. summit in April to focus on energy security
LONDON, England (Reuters) -- This will be a crunch year for action on
the climate crisis, a leading environmental lobbyist said on Wednesday.
Never have the opportunities been better and the danger from failure
greater, Friends of the Earth chief Tony Juniper said in an interview
with Reuters.
"There is an urgency that wasn't there before," Juniper said. "The
science is there, the economics is there and the politics is there ...If
they don't take this opportunity then we really should start to think
about the future of life on earth."
The scientists who mind the "Doomsday Clock" moved it forward two
minutes on Wednesday to five minutes until midnight, symbolizing the
growing risk of the annihilation of civilization, and for the first time
said global warming was a threat. (Full story)
Early next month the International Panel on Climate Change will produce
the first of four key reports this year assessing the latest scientific
knowledge on global warming.
This will be followed by a report in April on adaptation, one in May on
mitigation and a final overview in November.
A European Union-United States summit in April is expected to focus on
energy security, and a Group of Eight summit in early June will
highlight energy and climate.
Sources close to the diplomatic process say British Prime Minister Tony
Blair, seeking a lasting legacy from his decade in power before he
stands down mid-year, wants the G-8 summit to agree an outline plan for
further climate action.
Most scientists agree temperatures will rise by between 2 and 6 degrees
Celsius this century, mainly because of increasing carbon emissions from
burning fossil fuels for power and transport, putting millions of lives
at risk from flood and famine.
Former World Bank chief economist Nicholas Stern said in October that
urgent action on global warming was vital, and that delay would multiply
the cost 20 times.
The Kyoto Protocol is the only global pact obliging signatories to cut
carbon dioxide emissions, but the United States withdrew from it and
booming emitters China and India are not signatories. It expires in 2012
and negotiations to find a way forward or a replacement are sluggish.
In early December environment ministers will meet on the Indonesian
island of Bali to try to agree on global action to cut carbon emissions.
"There is the possibility of a deal here," said Juniper.
"The industrialized countries could say they are willing to negotiate
cuts to follow on from Kyoto, and the developing countries could say
they would be willing to enter negotiations some time soon. That could
happen at Bali," he added.
U.S. President George W. Bush, who rejected Kyoto, will have left office
by 2009 and the mood in the United States has become more favorable to
action on climate change.
"The momentum is developing. Everybody keeps talking about a window of
opportunity. We haven't seen a convergence like this before. If we don't
act now, when will there be a chance like this again?" asked Juniper.