Bangkok, Thailand – International delegates reached an agreement early today on the best ways to combat climate change despite efforts by China to water down language on cutting destructive greenhouse gas emissions.
The closed-door debate over everything from nuclear power to the cost of cleaner energy ran into the early morning hours with quibbling over wording. But consensus was eventually reached on a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a U.N. network of 2,000 scientists and delegates from more than 120 nations.
“It’s all done,” said Peter Lukey, a member of the South Africa delegation. “Everything we wanted to see was there and more. The message is: We have to do something now.”
China, the world’s second-largest greenhouse gas emitter after the United States, took a strong stance during the four-day meeting in Thailand. Along with India and other developing countries, it had pushed to raise the lowest target for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, delegates said.
A draft of the report proposed that the world limit concentrations of greenhouse gases to between 445 parts per million and 650 parts per million, but China sought to strike the lower range over fears it would hinder its booming economy, Michael Muller, Germany’s vice-minister for the environment, told reporters before the agreement was reached.
According to a partial version of the finalized document obtained by The Associated Press, China’s efforts failed to remove the lower emission target from the report.
“This is still an excellent report,” French delegate Michel Petit said, adding that China and the other developing countries ended up compromising on all major issues.
The report is the third segment of an overall blueprint that will shape the way the world tackles global warming.
Two previous reports by the panel this year warned that unabated greenhouse-gas emissions could drive global temperatures up as much as 11 degrees by 2100. Even a 3.6-degree rise could subject up to 2 billion people to water shortages by 2050 and threaten extinction for 20 percent to 30 percent of the world’s species, the panel said.
The third report, expected to be announced later in the morning, makes clear the world must quickly embrace a basket of technological options, both already available and developing, just to keep the temperature rise to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit.
