Brussels Responses To Climate Change Alarm
- April 7th, 2007
- Posted by EUEditor
The European Union says that alarming findings on climate change disclosed by the UN confirm its own initiatives, while environmentalist agencies say the world is now shown to be “running out of time”.
EU TARGETS MATCH THE UN FINDINGS
The European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said on Friday (6.4.07) the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, released at Brussels, provided further backing for EU objectives.
The report, from leading climate scientists, indicates climate change already having widespread effects, on human water resources, ecosystems and human life.
It says that stabilising the global temperature increase at no more than 2°C above pre-industrial levels could prevent irreversible and potentially catastrophic changes in global climate – such as the melting of the Greenland ice sheet.
Widespread impacts would remain likely with water levels dropping in drier parts of the world, crop failures, damage from extreme weather events like cyclones, and the threatened extinction of plant and animal species – with possibly as much as 30% loss.
Mr Stavros said the EU had adopted the goal of a 20% cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 2020, on 1990 figures, towards containing temperature rise to 2% – as now advocated by the UN panel.
It was also prepared to extend that to 30% if other countries would join it.
“The report shows many of the serious impacts that would occur if global warming exceeded the EU’s target of not more than 2°C above the pre-industrial level,” he said.
“The temperature today is already almost 0.8°C above that level, so the world needs to act fast if we are to succeed in stabilising climate change and thereby prevent its worst impacts.”
TIME RUNNING OUT – A WARNING
Greenpeace said time was nearly out to prevent dramatic, harmful and dangerous impacts projected for coming decades.
Stephanie Tunmore, International Climate and Energy Campaigner with the
Environmentalist group, said the IPCC report was a “glimpse into an apocalyptic future.”
“The earth will be transformed by human induced climate change, unless action is taken soon and fast,” she said.
The report is the second of four that are scheduled by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, to coincide with international conferences.
The first, in February, expressed very high probability, 90%, that most of the observed warming over the past half-century was caused by human activity.
Reference:
For a summary of this week’s report visit the IPCC site: www.ipcc.ch