UNFCCC: Rising industrialized countries emissions underscore need for action

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(Bonn, 17 November 2008) Two weeks ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland, the UN Climate Change Secretariat in Bonn has reported that greenhouse gas emissions in industrialized countries continue to rise.

Data submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) shows that emissions of 40 industrialized countries that have greenhouse gas reporting obligations under the Convention remained in 2006 below the 1990 level by about 5%, but rose by 2.3 percent in the time-frame 2000 to 2006.

For the smaller group of those industrialized countries that have ratified the Kyoto Protocol, emissions in 2006 were about 17% below the Kyoto baseline, but still growing after the year 2000. The initial decrease in Kyoto countriesí emissions mainly came about through the economic decline of economies in transition (countries in eastern and central Europe) in the 1990s.

“Meanwhile, the biggest recent increase in emissions of industrialized countries has come from economies in transition, which have seen a rise of 7.4% in greenhouse gas emissions within the 2000 to 2006 time-frame.”

The figures clearly underscore the urgency for the UN negotiating process to make good progress in Poznan and move forward quickly in designing a new agreement to respond to the challenge of climate change, said Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC.

The UN’s top climate change official also noted that accounting data, including emission quotas for the Kyoto commitment period 2008-2012, have been finalized for almost all Kyoto countries. Such data is already used in emissions trading conducted by countries in accordance with the rules established by the Kyoto Protocol.

Emission quotas defined by the Kyoto Protocol are no longer simple numbers on paper; they are part of real-time operation of the global carbon market, said Yvo de Boer. We see the carbon market working and this is an important message, not least for the Poznan meeting, he added.