人生の軌跡を綴っていきます


by yu-fen-sun
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Hatoyama takes lead on CO 2 cuts

Beijing, New Delhi seen making big concessions (譲歩する、妥協する)

In the highest-level conference yet on climate change, 100 world leaders gathered at the United Nations on Tuesday to decide how to start an energy revolution.

In his first U.N. speech since taking office, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama pledged that Japan will cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels.

Hatoyama also called for the establishment of an international mechanism offering technological and financial support to developing nations as part of efforts to tackle global warming, dubbed the "Hatoyama Initiative."

He said his government is determined to attain the 25 percent target by mobilizing "all possible measures," including the creation of a domestic emissions trading system and a program to buy renewable energy at fixed prices, and the possible establishment of a tax to pay for steps against global warming.

However, Hatoyama also stressed that Japan is not committed to achieving the 25 percent goal unless all major emitters agree on ambitious targets as well.

Hatoyama underscored (強調する) the need to "strategically increase" the amount of funds to help developing countries deal with threats linked to climate change because they are often required to deal with the residual effects (残留効果) of warming caused by other countries.

As a general rule, Hatoyama proposed that all industrialized nations should contribute "a considerable amount of additional funding from the private and public sectors" to help developing countries.

Meanwhile, the most substantial changes were expected to come from what the presidents of China, India and other major economies spelled out for billions of people and their households, businesses and farms in the decades ahead.

Those leaders were expected to make more ambitious commitments than the U.S. leader, whose hands are still tied by Congress.

"We are asking developing countries to do as we say, not as we did," said Ed Miliband, Britain's climate secretary, whose nation has pledged to cut carbon emissions by more than a third from 1990 levels by 2020, and said 40 percent of Britain's electricity by then would come from renewable sources.

Tuesday's U.N. summit and the G20 summit in Pittsburgh at the end of this week are intended to add pressure on the United States and other rich nations to commit to cuts and provide the billions of dollars needed to help developing nations stop cutting down their forests or burning coal.

China and the U.S. each account for about 20 percent of all the world's greenhouse gas pollution created when coal, natural gas or oil are burned. The European Union is next, generating 14 percent, followed by Russia and India, which each account for 5 percent.

Chinese President Hu Jintao was expected to lay out new plans for extending China's energy-saving programs and targets for reducing the "intensity" of its carbon pollution — carbon dioxide emission increases as related to economic growth.

China has been cutting energy intensity for the past four years and was expected to unveil a new carbon intensity goal in a five-year plan for development until 2015. China already has said it is seeking to use 15 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020.

India, too, was also expected to draw some of the spotlight for laying out plans for the fifth-biggest contributor of global warming gases to bump up fuel efficiency (燃料効率を上げる), burn coal more cleanly, preserve forests and grow more organic crops.

The U.S., under President George W. Bush's administration, long cited inaction by China and India as the reason for rejecting mandatory cuts in greenhouse gases.

Tuesday's meeting was intended to rally momentum for crafting a new global climate pact at Copenhagen in December. Bush rejected the 1997 Kyoto Protocol for cutting global emissions of warming gases, which expires at the end of 2012, based on its impact on the U.S. economy and exclusion of major developing nations such as China and India, both major polluters.

But neither China nor India say they will agree to binding greenhouse gas cuts like those envisioned in a new climate pact to start in 2013. They question why they should, when not even the U.S. will agree to join rich nations in scaling back (減らす、縮小する) their pollution.

The EU is urging other rich countries to match its pledge to cut emissions by 20 percent from 1990 levels by 2020, and has said it would cut up to 30 percent if other rich countries follow suit (後に続く、先例に倣う).

環境問題と経済問題・・・・・
この2つは大きなジレンマですね。
一見両立が矛盾するこの2つの問題を解決できる方法を探るしか
解決の道は無いように思えるのですが・・・・
例えば、技術の圧倒的変化、代替エネルギーの普及等々です。
by yu-fen-sun | 2009-09-24 00:41 | 英語関連