Of course, one has to put this historic commitment in perspective. The U.S. is pledging to reduce emissions by 26-28% below 2005 levels by 2025. However, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and others have indicated that developed countries would need to reduce emissions by 25-40% below 1990 levels by 2020 to keep us on a plausible trajectory to avoid temperatures rising 2C or more during this century. If you translate the U.S. commitment back to emissions in 1990, youre only talking about perhaps a 4-5% reduction below 1990 levels, in other words, about 20-35% below the commitment we should responsibly be making. As for China, its laudable that its moving up its target for stabilizing emissions, but coupled with the feckless response of most Western nations, it ensures that we will pass many critical climatic thresholds. AND if the GOP miscreants have their way, we wont even meet these modest goals.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 05:17:45 +0000
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