Summary
U.S. to present emissions target in Copenhagen WASHINGTON -- The United States, under pressure from other nations as one of the world's largest greenhouse-gas polluters, will present a target for reducing carbon dioxide emissions at next month's climate conference in Copenhagen, Obama administration officials said Monday. The development came as the European Union urged the United States and China to deliver greenhouse gas emissions targets at the long- anticipated summit, saying their delays were hindering global efforts to curb climate change. For nearly a year the Obama administration has indicated it would eventually come up with specific targets for quick reductions in pollution that causes global warming, as part of international negotiations. Those targets will soon be made public, officials said. A senior administration official, briefing reporters only on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the administration's thinking, said that all countries, including the U.S., "will need to put their emissions targets on the table." The Obama administration has resisted talking specific numbers without the backing of Congress, which is not expected to pass climate legislation until next year at the soonest. The official would not offer details about the U.S. targets but said any U.S. goal will reflect the unfinished state of legislation on Capitol Hill and would not seek to get ahead of it. A House-passed bill would slash heat-trapping pollution by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020. A Senate bill seeks a 20 percent reduction over the next decade, but that number is likely to come down to win the votes of moderate Democrats. U.N. pushes for attention to 'energy poverty' UNITED NATIONS -- Development officials say almost half the world's population lacks modern fuels to cook or heat or any electricity, and insist negotiators must address that "energy poverty" as part of any global climate pact next month in Denmark. In a report Monday, the U.N. Development Program and World Health Organization described 2 billion people as lacking natural gas, propane or other modern fuels used for cooking or heating their homes, and said 1.2 billion more people live entirely without electricity. The report, done with the collaboration by the International Energy Agency, cited the lack of energy access as a health factor for many of the world's 6.7 billion in population, particularly for the world's poorest living in the least developed nations of South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Kjorven and energy and health officials said poor people must have access to those modern fuels and to electricity produced by a mixture of traditional but clean-burning technologies, but also by more renewable sources of energy. According to the report, 2 million people a year die from causes associated with exposure to smoke from cooking with dung and other biomass or with coal, and all but 1 percent of those deaths occur in developing countries. It said half of all deaths from pneumonia in children under five years and from chronic lung disease and lung cancer in adults are attributed to solid fuel use, compared with 38 percent in developing countries.
MAUNA LOA OBSERVATORY, Hawaii (AP) - The readings at this 2-mile- high station show an upward curve as the world counts down to climate talks: Global warming gases have built up to record levels in the atmosphere, from emissions that match scientists' worst-case scenarios.See the full content of this document
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Unchartered Territory
Carbon dioxide concentrations this fall are hovering at around 385 parts per million, on their way to a near-certain record high above 390 in the first half of next year, at the annual peak.
"For the past million years we've never seen 390. You have to wonder wh...See the full content of this document
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