'Edited' climate paper approved
2007-04-06 13:04
Brussels - The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) approved its latest report on global warming on Friday after
last-minute wrangling to remove some critical parts of the report.
Issuing the report, panel chairperson Rajentra Pachauri praised
what he called a "very good document" which had not been easy to
reach.
"We have just completed a marathon meeting. We have approved a
report. It's been a very productive but tiring exercise. In the end
we have a very good document. It was a complex excercise and not an
easy document to produce," Pachauri said.
According to delegation sources in Brussels, the last-minute
obstacles which had to be resolved in drafting the final text came
from Saudi Arabia, China and Russia insisting on a watering-down of
the text.
Further details were expected to emerge from the press
conference following the issuing of the report.
Experts yield to US demands
During ongoing negotiations in Brussels, experts from 130
nations had yielded to demands from the United States and China.
The sections removed included one on the expected climate damage
in North America, sources said. The draft had originally said that
tornadoes, drought, flooding and fires would increase as a result
of climate change and was removed at the behest of the US.
During negotiations, China had insisted that one part of a text
be removed according to which damages "with a very high likelihood"
would occur. Scientists attending the negotiations had then
demanded that this particular part of the text be retained. A
compromise was then sought.
Various graphics have also been removed from the document,
according to delegates. One such graphic showed temperature rises
based on various hypotheses while another illustrated the regional
effects expected in Africa.
At the start of the conference, it became known that at least
one-ifth of animal species and plant species were in danger of
extinction. Heat, smog and malnutrition were making more and more
people ill. Floods and droughts are becoming more frequent.
In February, it released the first part of the current round,
which focussed on the science and found in more unequivocal terms
than ever before that human activity has caused the massive buildup
of greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide that trap heat beneath
Earth's atmosphere.
The third part of the report is to be released in May and is to
show ways of counteracting climate change.
- SAPA