Asian Pacific countries gathering in Singapore are backing off their pledge to cut emissions by 50 percent by 2050. APEC includes the top two greenhouse gas emitters -- China and the United States.
With most global leaders acknowledging that hopes for a deal at Copenhagen are as good as gone, and that “the Copenhagen agreement should finally mandate continued legal negotiations and set a deadline for their conclusion", the saga continues.
After two decades of treaty negotiations and a pledge by negotiators at climate talks in Bali, Indonesia, in 2007 to seal a deal in Denmark this December, nothing will happen? Will legal negotiations be anything better? As international politics plays its cards, how much long does the earth have before irreversible change? Very, very less, as science says. Not many leaders are willing to act by that.
The issues have ranged from resolving how much the rich North should pay the poor South to boost its resilience to climate hazards, to figuring out an acceptable process for all countries to measure and get credit for domestic actions that trim emissions.
Meanwhile, Forbes.com has come out with a compilation of polluting power plants. Sixty percent of the world’s electricity comes from plants burning fossil fuels and releasing carbon. Many of the highest-emission plants are concentrated in the United States and East Asia. Taiwan’s plant emits 40 million tons of carbon dioxide every year and is the dirtiest!
Going by per capita numbers Australia at 20.58 tons is leading the pack, and the US at 19.78 comes second. Taiwan emitted just 13.19 tons.
It is business as usual everywhere.
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