Time for a new deal on emissions?
IS THE climate finally right for a new deal on emissions? Several major economies to cut greenhouse-gas emissions, meeting the UN鈥檚 April deadline, with a view to signing a deal at a summit in Paris in December.
Top of the range is a 40 per cent cut from the European Union, relative to 1990 levels. The US has reiterated president Barack Obama鈥檚 commitment to a 26 to 28 per cent emissions cut by 2025, relative to 2005 figures, which Bill Hare of , a think tank in Berlin, Germany, says will entail doubling the US reduction rate to around 2.5 per cent a year.
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The EU pledges trump this, but allow wiggle room to use carbon captured by forest growth and land-use changes as a route to compliance. That could weaken the pledge on industrial emissions 鈥渂y a few percentage points鈥�, says Hare. Meanwhile, Mexico has pledged to cut emissions to 22 per cent below 鈥渂usiness as usual鈥� levels by 2030.
What sort of a deal this brings remains to be seen. The EU wants a legally binding agreement like the 1997 Kyoto Protocol; the US, China and others prefer voluntary commitments. of the University of California, San Diego, says the 鈥渂ottom-up鈥� approach of countries making voluntary commitments for international endorsement is more likely to succeed. 鈥淚 am more optimistic than I鈥檝e been in a very long time.鈥�
