Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions Exceed Reduction
By Marietta Gross - Scoop Media Auckland
Scoop Report: While the USA refuses to sign up to the climate protection protocol of Kyoto, the British Royal Society has issued a
warning that global efforts must be made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Lord Robert May from the British Royal Society warns that crucial aims agreed to by nations signing up to the Kyoto
Protocol and designed to protect the earth's climate must be met.
Lord May is concerned that the United States emits more greenhouse gases than all the other Kyoto-Protocol signature
countries put together.
The USA has indeed signed, but has not yet ratified the Kyoto protocol. The Bush Administration currently will not
undertake any endeavours to reduce the discharge of greenhouse gases from within the United States. Bush is particularly
resistant to cutting carbon dioxide (Co2) emission volumes.
Between 1999 and 2002 U.S. greenhouse gas emissions increased by 13 per cent, calculated the Royal Society.
In a speech at the British Embassy in Berlin, President Lord May warned political leaders not “to act like modern Neros,
who fiddle while the world is burning.”
Even if United States emissions reach a ceiling and Kyoto protocol aims are reached, the global greenhouse gas outcast
will accelerate by 1.6 per cent.
The Kyoto Protocol, which was ratified by 140 countries, aspires to reduce global emissions by 5.2 per cent beyond the
amount emitted in 1990.
May said, US-representatives should be forced to acknowledge the body of evidence that suggests the United States is the
major contributor of global greenhouse gas emissions, while attending this year's G8-summit held in Gleneagles,
Scotland, in July. “We must urgently act to avoid the worst consequences for the climate”, May said.