IEA hopes climate pact won't delay greenhouse cuts

December 12, 2011 08:23 am | Updated December 04, 2021 11:42 pm IST - CANBERRA

In this file photo, smoke billows from a chimney stack at Port Kembla, south of Sydney, Australia. File photo

In this file photo, smoke billows from a chimney stack at Port Kembla, south of Sydney, Australia. File photo

The chief economist of the International Energy Agency said Monday he welcomes a new U.N. climate change agreement but hopes it will not cause countries to put off action on reducing greenhouse gas emissions for the next decade.

A 194-party climate change conference in Durban reached a hard-fought agreement on Sunday to start negotiations on a new accord under which countries would be legally bound to carry out any pledges they make. It would take effect by 2020 at the latest.

“The good news is for the first time we have a roadmap that is supported and signed by all the governments that need to be involved,” IEA chief economist Fatih Birol told an energy conference in Canberra.

“However the question mark I have in my mind is I hope that this roadmap wouldn’t lead some of the countries not to act for the next 10 years,” he added.

The 28-nation IEA seeks to ensure stable, affordable and clean energy. It warned last month that the world is hurtling toward irreversible climate change and will lose the chance to limit global warming if it doesn’t take bold action in the next five years.

In its annual World Energy Outlook, the agency spelled out the consequences if those steps aren’t taken and what needs to be done to cap global temperature increases at 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels. That’s the threshold beyond which some scientists have said catastrophic changes could be triggered.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.