(Adds background, details)
NUSA DUA, Indonesia, Dec 8 (Reuters) - All nations must do
more to fight climate change, with deep cuts in greenhouse gases
by rich nations to avoid the worst impacts, a draft proposal at
U.N. talks said on Saturday.
The four-page draft, written by delegates from Indonesia,
Australia and South Africa as an unofficial guide for delegates
at the Dec. 3-14 190-nation talks, said developing nations
should at least brake rising emissions as part of a new pact.
It said there was "unequivocal scientific evidence" that
"preventing the worst impacts of climate change will require
(developed nations) to reduce emissions in a range of 25-40
percent below 1990 levels by 2020."
The draft is the first outline of how to launch talks on a
new global deal to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which binds 36
developed nations to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by 5
percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12.
"Current efforts...will not deliver the required emissions
reductions," according to the text, obtained by Reuters, that
lays out a roadmap to averting ever more droughts, floods,
heatwaves and rising seas.
"The challenge of climate change calls for effective
participation by all countries," it said. The United States is
outside the Kyoto pact and developing nations led by China and
India have no 2012 goals for limiting emissions.
And it said global emissions of greenhouse gases would have
to "peak in the next 10 to 15 years and be reduced to very low
levels, well below half of levels in 2000 by 2050."
It lays out three options for a "roadmap" of what should
happen after Bali -- ranging from non-binding talks over the
next two years to a deadline for adopting a new global pact at a
U.N. meeting in Copenhagen in late 2009.
For rich nations, it says that they should consider ways to
step up efforts to curb emissions of greenhouse gase by setting
"quantified national emission objectives".
And poor countries should take "national mitigation
actions...that limit the growth of, or reduce, emissions," it
says. It adds that "social development and poverty eradication
are the first and overriding priorities" for poor nations.
Delegates will report back on Monday with reactions to the
text.
-- For Reuters latest environment blogs click on:
http://blogs.reuters.com/environment/
(Reporting by Gerard Wynn and Alister Doyle, Reuters
messaging: (([email protected]; +47 900 87 663;
Reuters Messaging: rm://[email protected]))
Keywords: BALI/DRAFT