"Ambitious absolute emission reductions for developed countries" to fight climate change proposed.February 20 2008
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Encouraged that all major U.S. presidential candidates vow to protect the environment, lawmakers from industrialized nations and big emerging economies met Wednesday to craft solutions to global warming and rising deforestation.
Scores of legislators and officials from China to Cameroon were considering approval of a document demanding "ambitious absolute emission reductions for developed countries" to fight climate change. Proposals in the draft document included a global carbon market in which nations would be able to trade and sell credits, sharp increases in funding for developing countries to reduce emissions and even a worldwide ban on incandescent light bulbs.
The document did not explicitly name the United States — the only major industrial nation to reject the relatively modest cuts of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
But most nations hope Washington will agree to deep and mandatory reductions in greenhouse emissions by a 2009 U.N. climate conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. More >>>
