Tiempo Climate Newswatch

Government ministers and senior officials from 20 countries met in the United Kingdom to discuss climate change March 15-16th, prior to the next G8 summit in Scotland in July 2005. "We must make climate stability, energy investment and energy security central to economic policies," stated British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown. Graphic images of melting glaciers and makeshift sea defenses on display at the meeting underlined the point. "International cooperation is again the only way forward," he concluded.

The United States took the position that energy efficiency, not a radical shift to a low carbon economy, was the priority. "We are now trying to find a portfolio in which three words are important, technology, technology, technology," reported James L. Connaughton, President Bush's chief environment adviser, during the run-up to the meeting. Liu Jiang, leader of the Chinese delegation, said that China was embarking on a major investment programme in nuclear reactors to reduce its dependence on coal.

More information

• Reuters
• ENN
• CBS
• BBC

• Text of Gordon Brown's speech, Guardian

European Union (EU) environment ministers have proposed new emissions targets for the period after the Kyoto Protocol emissions reduction schedule ends in 2012. The proposal is that the industrialized nations cut emissions by 15 to 30 per cent by 2020 and by 60 to 80 per cent by 2050 from the 1990 benchmark levels.

The EU had been reluctant to discuss specific targets for the post-2012 period in order not to discourage the United States from participating. Serge Lepeltier, French Environment Minister, said, however, that "it would have sent a bad signal to the whole world" if EU states did not set targets. "Europe has the will to remain the engine behind the struggle against climate change." The proposal will be considered by EU heads of state at a meeting this week.

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• Terra Daily

• EurActiv

New studies by scientists based in the United States have underlined the inevitability of climate change and sea-level rise even if greenhouse gas emissions are reduced severely. "The feeling is that if things are getting bad, you hit the stop button. But even if you do, the climate continues to change," said Gerald Meehl of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado.

The analysts modelled the effects on climate of a range of emissions scenarios. Even the most 'optimistic' projection, which caps greenhouse gases at year 2000 levels as a result of drastic cuts in emissions, predicts that global temperature will continue to rise by up to 0.6 degrees Celsius over the next 100 years. The delayed response to emissions reductions occurs because of the high thermal inertia of the oceans. The oceans take time to warm, slowing the climate system's response to the change in the Earth's energy balance. As long as the ocean water continues to warm, it expands and sea level rises. An independent study by Tom Wigley, also based at NCAR, tells the same story.

More information

• New Scientist

• Press release, NCAR