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.
