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Web version of a press release issued on 23rd July by SGR
Scientists for Global Responsibility (SGR) [1] says the modified Kyoto Agreement is better than no agreement at all.
Accord has been reached over the Kyoto protocol but at the cost of weakening it considerably. Scientists for Global Responsibility welcomes the agreement but considers that in its currently diminished form, the degree to which it can offset global warming is small and generally insufficient.
The withdrawal from Kyoto by the Bush administration provided an opportunity for some countries, including Canada, Australia and Japan, to press for concessions in the form of extra carbon sink forests and reduced penalties for failing to meet emission goals. The final agreement now permits additional carbon sinks, and leaves details of emission-target penalties deferred to later talks.
The Kyoto Protocol, originally seen as a small but necessary first step in global carbon control, has become little more than a face-saving exercise.
Our Bonn delegate and the chair of SGR, Dr. Stuart Parkinson, said today "In an age where the world was seen as competing countries, politics was an issue of what each nation could gain for itself. We have entered a new age. We have yet to develop the new, global approach it so clearly requires."
Scientists for Global Responsibility urges all countries to commit now to ratification of the Kyoto Protocol before the Rio+10 Earth Summit in 2002, and to use this as a basis for rapid, real and lasting greenhouse gas emissions reductions.
Notes:
[1] Scientists for Global Responsibility (SGR) is an independent UK organisation of scientists committed to the ethical use of science and technology. SGR, PO Box 473, Folkestone, CT20 1GS, UK. Tel 07771 883696. Email: info@sgr.org.uk
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