Uncategorized

Draft climate text drops key 2020 goal

A compromise draft text to launch two years of negotiations for a global climate-change agreement has dropped a key ambition of tough 2020 emissions cuts for rich countries, Reuters reported on Friday.

Final negotiations at UN-led talks in Bali were marked by a dispute between the US and the EU over the text. The EU wants industrialized countries to agree to cuts of 25% to 40% in greenhouse-gas emissions from 1990 levels by 2020.

It was not clear, Reuters said, if the EU, the US and other countries would agree to the text, drafted by hosts Indonesia.

The draft text retained an ambition for global greenhouse-gas emissions to peak in the next 10-15 years and to fall well below half of 2000 levels by 2050. It omitted a US proposal that all countries should only aspire to national emissions targets.

See full story