Climate: USA ready to present emission reduction targets
WASHINGTON - The United States said it was ready to present greenhouse gas reduction targets at the climate conference in Copenhagen on Monday, an announcement welcomed by environmental movements awaiting a strong move from Washington.
"In a context where both developed and large developing countries are presenting significant proposals with the objective of reaching a comprehensive agreement, countries will have to put their goals on the table," a senior US official told the meeting. press on condition of anonymity.
The United States, one of the two biggest polluters on the planet with China, would thus satisfy a significant expectation of their international partners before the conference scheduled for December 7 to 18.
US targets are expected to be clarified in several days, the senior US official said. It is also "in the coming days" that President Barack Obama will decide whether to go in person to the Copenhagen conference, he added.
In Europe, environmental movements considered that the announcement of a target for reducing polluting emissions by the United States would be a step forward in the negotiations. But everything will obviously depend on the extent of the planned reductions and their timetable for implementation.
"Getting clarification from the United States on their commitments is going to be extremely important," Kim Carstensen of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) told AFP.
"It is good to know that we will have figures from the United States," she added, calling on Washington to clarify its intentions in terms of reducing emissions and helping developing countries to reduce emissions. their.
For Greenpeace, it is imperative that the American objectives be more ambitious than those currently under discussion in Congress. The Senate must therefore debate a 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 compared to their level in 2005.
Compared to 1990, the reference year adopted by almost all the countries concerned, such a target would only result in a reduction of 4%.
If this was the objective presented by Washington, "it would not respond to the warning of science and would not correspond to the responsibility that is that of the United States in the current climate crisis", said Joris den Blanken, an official of Greenpeace.
"We demand from the United States a reduction target of at least 25%," he added.
The European Union has announced a 20% reduction in its emissions in 2020 compared to 1990 and has said it is ready to go up to 30% if other developed states follow suit.
According to the researchers, a reduction of 25% to 40% of emissions from developed countries is essential if we want to be able to limit global warming to 2 degrees.
The US Senate is not expected to vote on the climate law until spring, several months after Copenhagen.
Denmark has officially invited 191 heads of state or government from UN countries to participate in the final two days of the conference. Anyway, Obama is supposed to travel to Europe on December 10, when he is due to receive his Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo.
Sixty-five leaders have so far confirmed their participation, Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen said on Sunday.
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