US resists mention of deep emissions cuts in Bali climate document

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
In a largely symbolic duel over numbers, the United States resisted efforts at the UN climate conference to suggest that coming negotiations consider a specific range of targets for sharp cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions. A proposed text for the Bali conference's final document notes - in a nonbinding way - a widely accepted view that reductions of 25 percent to 40 percent in richer nations' emissions would be required by 2020, and even deeper cuts later, to head off the worst of global warming. "It's important to give a clear signal that that's where industrialized countries intend to go," the UN climate chief, Yvo de Boer, told reporters on Monday. The European Union, which pushed for this mention of potential targets, has itself committed to 20 percent to 30 percent reductions below 1990 levels by 2020.