Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Commentary: Developed nations should take more responsibility in tackling climate change

BEIJING, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Differences from different nations are still there when talking about the theme of climate change, Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) said after a just-concluded summit of the environment ministers of the Group of Eight (G8).


The only consensus is that time is running out for a worldwide agreement to be reached by the end of this year, said Steiner when referring to the outcome of the three-day meeting.


From Copenhagen to Bali, the world is staggering on a road of how to cope with the issue of climate change, where major differences exist between developed and developing countries and between developed countries themselves on greenhouse gas emissions.


The U.S. administration of Barrack Obama is considering cutting the greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent by 2020 from the level of 2005, which was complained as a plan "not sufficient enough" by the EU, which has pledged to slash by 20 percent to 30 percent by 2020 from the level of 1990.


At last year's G8 summit in Hokkaido, Japan, the participants had pledged to set a mid-term target for the reduction of gas emissions between 2020 to 2030, but no specific goals nor a blueprint were finally worked out at the end of the meeting.

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