By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent
OSLO (Reuters) - Rich nations' emissions of gases blamed for global
warming risk rebounding in coming years after falling overall since
1990 amid the collapse of Soviet-era industries, United Nations data
showed on Thursday.
Compared to 1990, the greenhouse gas emissions of 40 developed
nations including former Communist states were down 5.9 percent by
2003, slightly exceeding a goal of a cut of 5.2 percent by 2008-12 set
by the U.N.'s Kyoto protocol.
"Further efforts are required to sustain these reductions and to
cut the emissions further," the Bonn-based Secretariat of the U.N.
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), of which Kyoto is a
part, said in a report.
It projected that emissions could rise by 10.6 percent above 1990
levels by 2010, cautioning that most of the overall reductions dated
from the early 1990s when smokestack industries in the former Soviet
Union and eastern Europe shut down.
"Greenhouse gas projections indicate the possibility of emission
growth by 2010. It means that ensuring sustained and deeper emission
reductions remains a challenge for developed countries," said Richard
Kinley, acting head of the Secretariat.
A U.N. meeting in Montreal, Canada, from Nov 28-Dec 9 will review
Kyoto and ways to widen it to non-participants including the United
States and developing nations like China and India when it runs out in
2012.
Many scientists say that a build-up of greenhouse gases -- from
power plants, factories and cars -- are driving up temperatures and
could cause catastrophic climate changes with more storms, floods,
deserts and rising sea levels.
According to the UNFCCC data, Lithuania had made the deepest cuts
at 66.2 percent below 1990 levels in 2003, followed by Baltic
neighbours Latvia on 58.5 percent and Estonia on 50.8 percent.
Among other countries below 1990 levels, Russia's emissions were
down 38.5 percent, Germany's down 18.2 percent, Britain's down 13.0
percent and France's down 1.9 percent.
At the other end of the scale, Spain was furthest above target with
a 41.7 percent rise in emissions above 1990 in 2003, followed by
Monaco at 37.8 percent, Portugal 36.7 percent, Greece 25.8 and Ireland
25.6 percent.
The United States, which pulled out of Kyoto in 2001 after
President George W. Bush said it was too expensive and wrongly
excluded poor nations from the first round of cuts, was 11th furthest
above target at 13.3 percent above 1990 levels.
The data was part of a new publication by the UNFCCC on
greenhouse gas data from 40 developed nations and 121
developing nations.
Among developing nations, some of which have submitted data
for several years, the UNFCCC said emissions fell in 14
nations and rose in 15 among 29 countries reporting figures
for both 1994 and 1990.
The biggest rise was in Paraguay with a 114 percent rise
and the biggest fall in Cuba, of 40 percent.
© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.
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