The greenhouse gas emissions cuts proposed by rich nations for the year 2020 add up to between 15% and 21% below 1990 levels, according to official data released Tuesday at the United Nations climate talks in Bonn.
This figure does not include a goal for the United States, which is not a participant in the Kyoto Protocol. U.S. President Barack Obama has said the U.S. will cut its emissions to 1990 levels by 2020–a target that would drop the above percentage total, if figured in.
Climate scientists have said cuts need to be in the range of 25% to 40% below 1990 levels by 2020 in order to avert the worst impacts of climate change. Developing nations have pushed for a target at the top of this range in negotiations for a new climate change treaty.
Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, said the 2020 pledges were "miles away" from what is need to meet 80% cuts by 2050 that Group of Eight leaders committed to in Italy last month.
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Read the Reuters report at the link below.
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