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'A moment of enormous crisis'
16/02/2007 14:03 - (SA)
Washington - Lawmakers from across the world including the United States and China called on Thursday for a post-Kyoto pact to fight the "catastrophic" threat of global warming.
Meeting in Washington for the first time, the Global Legislators Organisation for a Balanced Environment (GLOBE) cited a new mood for action, with scientific warnings on climate change reaching a fever pitch.
"In our view, the evidence that man is changing the climate is now beyond doubt," said a statement issued by lawmakers drawn primarily from the powerful Group of Eight nations plus Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa.
"But we must be clear that climate change is a global issue and there is an obligation on us all to take action, in line with our capabilities and historic responsibilities," they said at a two-day forum at the US Senate.
The forum noted the alarming conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change delivered at a Paris conference this month.
The UN body said fossil fuel pollution would raise temperatures this century, worsen floods, droughts and hurricanes, melt polar ice and damage the climate system for a thousand years to come.
Change is coming
Following an inaugural meeting in Brussels in mid-2006, the Washington forum was the second informal attempt by legislators to try to craft the outlines of a global warming pact to succeed the Kyoto treaty, which expires in 2012.
The Republican administration of US President George W Bush refused to adopt the treaty against climate change, arguing the economic costs would be crippling and the science remained unclear.
Kyoto also left out emerging nations like India and China, which is building a new coal-fired power plant at the rate of one a week to sustain its stunning economic transformation.
But a number of influential US senators, including Republican presidential hopeful John McCain and Democrat John Kerry, lined up to insist that change is coming in the world's largest economy and its heaviest polluter.
"This is a moment of enormous crisis. We have a 10-year window," Kerry told the forum, pressing for global action now to curb greenhouse gas emissions before the planet's climate lurches over a "tipping point".
If proponents for action are wrong about climate change, Kerry said, the worst that can happen is the world cleans up its environment and spends billions on newer, cleaner energy technologies.
Addressing skeptics about global warming who oppose binding action by industry and governments, he said: "What's the worst than can happen if they're wrong? Catastrophe."
- AFP
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