Monday, April 30, 2007

'Centuries' of climate change forecast

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is preparing to release details on the economic cost of climate change at a conference in Thailand.
Leaked copies of a draft report to be presented to the conference show that stabilising emissions of greenhouse gases may cost less than 3 per cent of annual global economic growth.
A final draft of the report shown to journalists urges countries to immediately put in place policies to stop the global growth in emissions by 2030.
Panel chairman Dr Rajendra Pachauri says it will be a major challenge.
"Whatever we do today in order to mitigate emissions of greenhouse gases, the inertia in the system will allow climate change to take place for a long period of time," he said.
"For instance, sea level rises will continue not only for decades but centuries and therefore what we have to do is to bring about adaptation measures."
Australian economist Roger Beale is one of the authors of the report.
He has told ABC radio's The World Today program it will be the most detailed examination of emissions to date.
"As you would expect this would include sectors like stationary energy - that's energy supply - things like electricity, gas and so on," he said.
"Transport, buildings, industry, agriculture, forestry, and then another important sector is the waste sector. There's a lot of emissions occur from landfill."
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