Missed Deadline for Carbon Reduction Promises Could Have Consequences

Countries responsible for about 60 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions have not met the UN deadline to file their opening offers to reduce their C0₂ output. This ahead of an important global climate change conference later this year.

In December, representatives from 196 countries will meet in Paris to discuss an international agreement to cut global CO₂ emissions. There are fears that if too many countries wait until the last minute to make initial offers it could undermine the effectiveness of this conference, just as it did the 2009 conference in Copenhagen.

Australia, Brazil, Japan India and Canada missed the UN deadline. It was only meant to be a loose deadline, however. At the 2013 Warsaw Climate Change Conference it was agreed that only countries “ready to do so” would submit their plans before the end of the first quarter of 2015.

Read more...www.spectrum.ieee.org

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