Talk Talk Talk

U.N. talks agree report on battling climate change

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Climate experts agreed on a U.N. report on Friday that said fighting global warming is affordable and the technology available to slow the growth in greenhouse gas emissions and stave off climate chaos, a senior delegate said.
"It's done," he told Reuters after five days of intense wrangling about how much the battle against climate change would cost and how to go about it.
The talks in Bangkok ran into the early hours as scientists and government officials from more than 100 countries tried to resolve complex issues in the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The report deals with ways to curb rapid growth in greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels and forests, that scientists say are causing global warming.
It also says current policies are inadequate.
"With current climate-change-mitigation policies and related sustainable-development practices, global greenhouse gas emissions will continue to grow over the next few decades," a revised draft of the report says.
The formal report, yet to be published, does not set out policies. It reviews the latest science on the costs and ways to curb emissions growth and is designed to be a blueprint for governments. Continued...
© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved.