Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono prays during a ceremony in Jakarta, on 17 Aug. By President's initiative, Indonesia has proposed that eight countries home to some 80 percent of the world's tropical rainforests join diplomatic ranks amid rising climate change concerns.
Indonesia proposes rainforest nations climate group
12 hours ago
JAKARTA (AFP) — Indonesia has proposed that eight countries home to some 80 percent of the world's tropical rainforests join diplomatic ranks amid rising climate change concerns, a senior official said Saturday.
"This is the initiative of our president, in order that they be able to play an important role in the diplomacy of global warming," the spokesman for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told AFP.
"It's important for the eight countries to have a joint consensus on their contribution to efforts to control global warming," spokesman Dino Patti Djalal said, adding that the group would look at how forest conservation can happen in tandem with economic development.
Indonesia will open a meeting of the eight countries on September 24 in New York in parallel with the UN's annual plenary session, he added.
The eight countries are Brazil, Cameroon, Congo, Costa Rica, Gabon, Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea, but more could join, Djalal separately told the Jakarta Post.
12 hours ago
JAKARTA (AFP) — Indonesia has proposed that eight countries home to some 80 percent of the world's tropical rainforests join diplomatic ranks amid rising climate change concerns, a senior official said Saturday.
"This is the initiative of our president, in order that they be able to play an important role in the diplomacy of global warming," the spokesman for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told AFP.
"It's important for the eight countries to have a joint consensus on their contribution to efforts to control global warming," spokesman Dino Patti Djalal said, adding that the group would look at how forest conservation can happen in tandem with economic development.
Indonesia will open a meeting of the eight countries on September 24 in New York in parallel with the UN's annual plenary session, he added.
The eight countries are Brazil, Cameroon, Congo, Costa Rica, Gabon, Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea, but more could join, Djalal separately told the Jakarta Post.
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gq5vMw9zcrH4ZhMk6kH11xi7Oryw
UN climate change talks reach consensus on greenhouse gas reduction
13:15, September 01, 2007
Industrial nations reached consensus on Friday to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 25 to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.The consensus was reached at the fourth round of climate change talks under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), held Aug. 27-31 in Vienna.Yvo de Boer, head of the UN Climate Change Secretariat, welcomed the outcome, saying the setting of the goal for reducing greenhouse gas emissions created a fundamental framework for the further discussion of relevant topics at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNCCC), due to be held in Bali, Indonesia, in December.He added that the consensus showed the common will of all parties involved to further impel the work for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, but "more needs to be done by the global community."Delegates taking part in the talks said that although the consensus is a non-binding pact, and can only serve as reference for the upcoming UNCCC, it is an important middle tache and would be conducive to making further progress in Bali.Delegates from more than 100 countries and regions, including China, attended the five-day talks in Vienna.The fourth round of climate change talks in Vienna was aimed at helping explore new mechanisms for reducing greenhouse gas emissions after the United Nations Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/6252751.html
Climate change is a hot topic
More than 100 nations meeting in Vienna have been struggling to strike a balance between what rich and poor countries must do to cut greenhouse gas emissions and slow global warming.Leon Charles of Grenada, who is helping oversee the talks said a key goal is forging a rough consensus on emissions targets that industrialised countries can formally agree to at a summit in Bali later this year. Meanwhile, a report by the United Nations body dealing with climate change says that spending more money on energy efficiency is the easiest way of slowing global warming. The UN report, presented to a climate conference in Vienna, suggests that the world will need to spend an extra two hundred billion dollars a year by 2030 to keep emissions of greenhouse gases at their current levels. And this money needs to be spent principally in the developing world…
http://www.cbc.bb/content/view/12360/45/
Climate change talks seek to extend Kyoto
An UN meeting in Vienna has revealed disaccords on how to tackle climate change beyond the Kyoto agreement. A new proposal to set a 25-40% emissions reduction target below 1990 levels by 2020, is facing strong resistance from major industrial states.
At an international climate meeting, the EU and other developing nations, such as China and India, have highlighted the need to limit global temperature rise to 2°C above pre-industrial levels as a prerequisite to avoid "dangerous" climate change. In a report issued today, Friday 31 August, the EU urged all industry nations to use a stringent 25-40% range in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions from 1990 levels by 2020 as a guide for future talks on a post-Kyoto agreement. The proposal, however, has met strong resistance from other developed nations, including Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, and Switzerland….
http://www.r744.com/news/news_ida187.php
The two USA newsprint I read so far on this topic are The Washington Post and Chicago Tribune, both sought to make the UN and the countries moving toward concensus to be baffoons that could not agree on anything. This is the lousy journalism of The Washington Post (Bush Propaganda); I thought for a minute I was reading The Washington Times. If this is the level of discord the USA newspapers are presenting imagine the lack of validity there is about the Iraq War and otherwise. But, basically, the global environmental community is getting close to the goals we need and the speed at which those goals are beginning to be identified is rather incredible.:
U.N. Climate Talks End in Cloud of Discord (click here)
Industrialized, Developing Nations Still at Odds Over How and When to Cut Emissions
By John Ward AndersonWashington Post Foreign ServiceSaturday, September 1, 2007; Page A20
PARIS, Aug. 31 -- A five-day U.N. conference on climate change ended in Vienna on Friday with significant disagreements remaining about how countries should reduce greenhouse gas emissions and daunting estimates about the price tag for combating global warming.
Some industrialized countries balked at adopting language in the conference's final statement that would have set a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 25 to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. They agreed in the end that this target would be a nonbinding starting point for future discussion....
Industrialized, Developing Nations Still at Odds Over How and When to Cut Emissions
By John Ward AndersonWashington Post Foreign ServiceSaturday, September 1, 2007; Page A20
PARIS, Aug. 31 -- A five-day U.N. conference on climate change ended in Vienna on Friday with significant disagreements remaining about how countries should reduce greenhouse gas emissions and daunting estimates about the price tag for combating global warming.
Some industrialized countries balked at adopting language in the conference's final statement that would have set a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 25 to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. They agreed in the end that this target would be a nonbinding starting point for future discussion....
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