Next president better than Bush on climate

OSLO (Reuters) - Any of the top three U.S. presidential hopefuls would be better than President George W. Bush at combating climate change, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Monday.
"The trend is on the right side, but there is a lot of work to do," Barroso said of the outlook for U.S. policy on fighting global warming during a seminar on climate change and energy security in the Norwegian capital.
Democratic presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and Republican John McCain all favour setting caps on U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases -- something Bush has so far rejected despite pressure from his allies.
"Any of the candidates: Mr. Obama, Mrs. Clinton or John McCain, will be more committed to combating climate change than the present administration," Barroso said in answer to a question.
The United States is the only developed nation outside the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol after Australia's new Labor government signed up in December.


European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso delivers a speech during the 6th European Business Summit in Brussels



FLOODS AND DROUGHTS
Kyoto seeks to cut greenhouse gas emissions by an average of at least five percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12 in a first step to stave off rising temperatures that the U.N. Climate Panel says will bring more floods, droughts and rising seas.
U.S. emissions were 16 percent above 1990 levels in 2005. Emissions by many Kyoto nations are also far over goal -- Barroso's homeland Portugal is 43 percent above 1990 levels even though the EU overall is on target.
Barroso said he expects Europe "to again take the lead" at climate talks in Copenhagen in late 2009, when a global agreement to curb emission of greenhouse gases is expected. Bush will step down in January 2009.
About 190 nations agreed at U.N. talks in Bali, Indonesia, in December last year to launch two years of negotiations on a new climate treaty to widen Kyoto with commitments for all nations, including developing countries such as China and India.
The EU has a goal of cutting emissions by 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 and will increase the cuts to 30 percent if other nations are willing.
Sen. Obama of Illinois, for instance, says he would introduce a cap and trade system that would help cut carbon emissions by 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.
Sen. McCain of Arizona is the sponsor of one of the first bills to curb climate warming emissions.
And New York Sen. Clinton is a member of the Senate's Environment and Public Works Commission, which approved a first carbon-capping bill in December.

Rich nations should agree 2020 carbon targets - U.N.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The world's rich countries should set a goal of cutting planet-warming gases by 2020, not by 2050 as some have suggested, so businesses can get a clearer signal on actions they need to take to fight global warming, the U.N.'s top climate change official said on Monday.
In U.N. climate talks in Bali late last year, Washington rejected stiff 2020 targets for greenhouse gas cuts by rich nations as part of a roadmap to work out a new global pact to fight climate change. The new pact would take effect in 2009, replacing the Kyoto Protocol.
Also last year, then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe proposed a global target to halve greenhouse gases by 2050. The target was shrugged off as too vague and lacking teeth without binding targets.
But the 2050 date is still being discussed by some of the world's largest greenhouse gas emitters as a target for imposing reductions. Such a target would be too far off for businesses to start taking meaningful action to fight climate change, Yvo de Boer, the head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat said in a telephone interview.
He said 2050 targets would be an easy way for politicians to push the hard work of cutting emissions into the future because most of them would be dead by then. "2050 is in a way committing the unborn, and I think that the signal that businesses are looking for is where rich nations intend to be in 2020," he said.
Japan's current Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda is set to host the Group of Eight summit in July. He is under pressure on climate change and is likely to urge major emitters to each set targets for reducing carbon dioxide to be achieved before 2050, Japanese media has said.
De Boer said a 2050 goal is among the things being discussed by a group of major emitters led by the United States. But he said this could complicate the setting of a nearer goal that would spur businesses to start taking real steps on fighting climate change.
"If it's hard to fix the nature of something for 2050 when most politicians will be under the ground, how much more difficult is it going to be to be clear on 2020?" said de Boer.
"I really hope that the Japanese G8 presidency can provide a breakthrough on that sense of direction." he said.

Amazon rain forest to shrink 20 percent by 2030

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP): Two Brazilian research groups said the Amazon rain forest will shrink nearly 20 percent by 2030 as farming, road construction and poor government surveillance speeds deforestation, according to a study published Sunday.
As many as 670,000 square kilometers (259,000 square miles) of forest may be destroyed in the next 22 years, according to the University of Minas Gerais and the Amazon Institute of Environmental Research, whose findings were reported by Rio de Janeiro's O Globo newspaper.
"The damage to the Amazon and to the planet will be irreparable,'' said researcher Britaldo Silveira Soares, predicting reductions in biodiversity and rainfall, along with an increase in greenhouse gas emissions as trees are burned to clear land.
A government plan to boost highway construction in the Amazon region will also speed deforestation, while poor police surveillance allows illegal logging and other environmental crimes to continue, researchers warned.
In the short term, preliminary figures from Brazil's Environmental Ministry show rain forest destruction accelerated between August and December, after three years of widely touted declines.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said research is under way to confirm those figures, and ordered extra federal police and environmental agents to monitor illegal forest clearing in 36 high-risk areas.
Officials vowed to block new logging permits and fine those who buy anything produced on illegally deforested land.
Environmentalists say increased demand for soy and beef products has prompted farmers to carve fields and pastures from the Amazon, and Sunday's study cites illegal logging as a top cause of deforestation.
Most of the world's remaining tropical wilderness lies in the Amazon, which covers about 4.1 million square kilometers (1.6 million square miles) and nearly 60 percent of Brazil. About 20 percent of the forest has already been razed.