INTERNATIONAL: August 21, 2008


About 1,000 delegates from more than 150 nations will meet in Ghana from Aug. 21-27 for talks on a new climate treaty to succeed the UN's Kyoto Protocol.


THE PROBLEM

A UN panel of climate experts says it is more than 90 percent probable that greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, are to blame for a warming set to cause more droughts, floods, heatwaves, crop failures and higher seas.

World emissions from human activities rose to 49 billion tonnes in 2004 from 39.4 billion in 1990. The UN Climate Panel projects they will rise by between 25 and 90 percent above 2000 levels by 2030.


SOLUTIONS

GLOBAL - About 190 nations agreed at a meeting in Bali, Indonesia, in December to work out a world treaty by the end of 2009 to succeed Kyoto, comprising deeper emissions cuts by rich nations and action by poor countries to slow rising emissions. The Accra talks are the third meeting on that path.

KYOTO - Kyoto binds all rich nations except the United States to cut emissions on average by 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12. Kyoto backers have agreed to consider cuts of 25-40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. But almost no governments are setting such tough goals.

G8 - Leading industrial nations agreed at a Group of Eight summit in Japan in July to a "vision" of cutting world emissions of greenhouse gases by 50 percent by 2050.


DEVELOPED NATIONS' TARGETS

UNITED STATES - President George W. Bush in April set a 2025 peak for US emissions. By then, economists say US emissions are likely to be about 30 percent above 1990 levels. Bush's likely successors both want far tougher goals. Democrat Barack Obama favours cutting US emissions by 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. Republican John McCain aims to cut to 1990 levels by 2020 with a 60 percent cut below 1990 levels by 2050.

EUROPEAN UNION - EU leaders agreed in 2007 to cut emissions by 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, and by 30 percent if other nations make similar cuts. That implies a 14.2 percent cut from 2005 levels by 2020, according to the European Commission. They also said that rich countries should aim to reduce emissions by 60 to 80 percent by 2050 compared to 1990.

JAPAN - Tokyo plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 60-80 percent below 2005 levels by 2050, implying a cut of about 14 percent by 2020 from 2005. That would put emissions about 4 percent below the 1990 Kyoto benchmark by 2020.

CANADA - The government's "Turning the Corner" plan seeks to cut emissions by 20 percent below 2006 levels by 2020 and envisions cuts of 60 to 70 percent below 2006 by 2050. If applied to the usual Kyoto 1990 benchmark, a 20 percent cut would put emissions 2.7 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.


DEVELOPING NATIONS

CHINA - The government's 2006-10 plan aims to reduce energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product by 20 percent, curbing the rise of greenhouse gas emissions. Beijing also plans to quadruple gross domestic product from 2001-20 while only doubling energy use.

INDIA - New Delhi says priority must go to economic growth to end poverty while shifting to clean energies led by solar power. The government says per capita emissions will never exceed those of developed industrialised nations.

SOUTH AFRICA - The government aims to cap emissions by 2020-25, keep them flat for up to a decade and then cut. It will set mandatory energy efficiency targets and promote a shift away from coal.

-- For Reuters latest environment blogs click on: http://blogs.reuters.com/environment/ (Editing by James Jukwey)


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