EU’s bold climate moves encouraging to developing countries, says UN

THE UN’s top climate change official says the EU has sent a “very encouraging” signal to developing countries by committing itself to bold measures against global warming.

EU leaders last week agreed that the bloc’s greenhouse gas emissions would be cut by at least 20% from 1990 levels over the next 13 years — and said they could fall by 30% if other countries join. They pledged that one-fifth of the 27-nation bloc’s energy would come from renewable sources by 2020.

“I would expect that this very bold move forward [and] will be seen as very encouraging by developing countries — countries that are essential to engage in the next round of international negotiations,” said Yvo de Boer yesterday.

German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel was hosting counterparts from the Group of Eight (G8) industrial powers and also invited ministers from five key developing countries: China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa.

Mr de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said the EU move was “exactly the kind of leadership from industrialised countries that developing countries are looking for”.

Opening yesterday’s session, Mr Gabriel said that having developing nations on board was essential to moving forward in combating climate change.

“For future meetings, it is important to have trust from all sides,” he said.

World environment ministers are to meet in Bali, Indonesia, in December to begin talks on what action to take on global warming after 2012, when the Kyoto deal expires.

Germany, currently chairing both the EU and G8, hopes that the EU deal will set an example. The US, the world’s heavyweight polluter, refused to join Kyoto, which does not include fast-growing countries such as China and India.

Meanwhile, this winter in the northern hemisphere was the warmest on record, the US said in its latest report on the subject.

The Washington report comes just over a month after the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change said global warming was very likely caused by human actions and is so severe it will continue for centuries.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said the combined land and ocean temperatures from December to February were 1.3F above average for the period since records began in 1880. During the past century, global temperatures had increased at about 0.11F per decade. But that increase has been three times larger since 1976, the NOAA’s National Climatic Data Centre reported.

Most scientists attribute the rising temperatures to so-called greenhouse gases which are produced by industrial activities.

Also contributing to this winter’s record warmth was El Nino, a periodic warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean. It was particularly strong in January — the warmest January ever — but the ocean surface had since begun to cool.

The report noted that in the northern hemisphere the combined land and water temperature was the warmest ever at 1.64F above average. In the southern hemisphere, where it was summer, the temperature was 0.88F above average — the fourth warmest.

The late March date of the vernal equinox notwithstanding, for weather and climate purposes, northern winter is December, January and February.

For the US, the winter temperature was near average. The season got off to a late start and spring-like temperatures covered most of the eastern half of the country in January, but cold conditions set in during February, which was the third-coldest on record.