Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

158 nations agree on curbing greenhouse gases

The agreement does not include the United States.

VIENNA, Austria - Negotiators from 158 countries reached basic agreement Friday on rough targets aimed at getting some of the world's biggest polluters to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

A weeklong U.N. climate conference concluded that industrialized countries should strive to cut emissions by 25 to 40 percent of their 1990 levels by 2020. Experts said that target would serve as a loose guide for a major international climate summit to be held in December in Bali, Indonesia.

Delegates worked into Friday evening to overcome resistance from several countries - including Canada, Japan and Russia - that had held up negotiations because they preferred a more open approach rather than setting emissions targets.

The targets are not binding, but they were seen as an important signal that industrialized nations are serious about slashing the amount of carbon dioxide and other dangerous gases.

Friday's agreement sought to ease concerns that the emissions target might be too ambitious for some nations. But it made clear that greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced to "very low levels" to guard against potentially deadly flooding, drought and other fallout.

Yvo de Boer, the U.N.'s top climate official, said the agreement doesn't let developing countries off the hook. "Even if industrialized countries do this, it will only be a contribution to the global effort," he said.

The Bali conference will try to forge a new global agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions after 2012, when the 1997 Kyoto Protocol expires. The Kyoto accord requires 35 industrial nations to cut their emissions 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.

Friday's agreement does not include the United States, which hasn't ratified the Kyoto Protocol.

[Last modified September 1, 2007, 01:33:14]