5-year deadline for decisions on climate change

World faces 5-year deadline for decisions on climate change: WWF by Peter Capella

Tue May 15, 10:14 AM ET

Governments need to take key decisions within five years on how to tackle climate change to cope with an expected doubling of energy demand over the next 50 years, the environmental group WWF said Tuesday.

Delays would expose the planet to dangerous warming within a lifetime or force even harsher and costlier measures that could cause significant damage to the global economy, WWF International said in a technical report.

"The question for leaders and governments everywhere is how to rein in dangerously high levels of carbon dioxide emissions without stunting development and reducing living standards," said WWF Director General James Leape.

"We have a small window of time in which we can plant the seeds of change and that is the next five years. We cannot afford to waste them," he added.

The report set a target of limiting the increase in global average temperatures to two degrees centigrade over pre-industrial levels by 2050 -- compared to 0.7 degrees now -- and a 50 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions.

The WWF backed a recent report by a UN panel of scientists that had underlined that the worst consequences of global warming could be averted with known technologies, alternative energy sources and energy-saving measures.

However, the enviromental group said economic and political decision-making was still "on a different and dangerous trajectory."

"Scientific warnings continue to mount, yet the debate continues and what passes for vision seems to have great difficulty seeing past the next filling station," it added.

The report advocated six key solutions, including more efficient energy use, the reversal of deforestation, accelerated development of low emission technologies such as wind and solar power, as well as energy storage.

The WWF also wants coal-fired power stations to be replaced by gas, and more carbon capture and sequestration to cope with continuing emissions from fossil fuels like oil.

Together they could cut carbon dioxide emissions by about 60 to 80 percent by 2050 provided they are implemented on time.

Leape rated measures like investment in energy efficiency in buildings and transport as "no brainers" because they could bring huge gains at relatively low cost and with little risk.

At the other end of the scale, the report ruled out nuclear power despite its zero emissions potential because the risks of radioactive pollution, weapons proliferation, and the cost of construction and decommissioning, outweighed the benefits.

The report stressed that if concerted decisions were taken by every country within five years, the measures could start to have the desired impact in a decade "based on the real world constraints" of industry's ability to adapt.

underlined

The "Climate Solutions: WWF's Vision for 2050" was produced by a task force that includes 100 scientists and experts.

It focused purely on the issue of what is known about the technologies and physical resources available, as well as industry's ability to cope with change.

It did not examine the economic costs, or the exact policies needed to implement the steps.

But the WWF said it was "acutely aware" that ending the dominance of oil and coal, phasing out nuclear power, or rapidly and unsustainably expanding biofuels could cause huge social, environmental and economic upheavals if badly managed.

Reports by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change this year underlined that efforts to stabilise the level of greenhouse gases over the next 20 to 30 years would be crucial in the fight against global warming.

The IPCC scientists said carbon dioxide emissions by industry, transport and households were already having an impact on the world's climate and were set to wreak huge damage on human settlement and wildlife this century if they went unchecked

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