'Fossil' EU refuses to set a new Greenhouse target before 2020

According to TimesLIVE, a representative of the UN Environmental Programme said at the UN climate change talks in Doha, Qatar, Wednesday morning, 28 November 2012, that the world has the know-how to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases linked to the rise in global temperatures.

What is lacking, however, is political will. The EU - consistently under pressure to increase its emission-reduction target - it has already met the target it set itself for 2020, reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 20% from the 1990 level.

The EU stance of refusing to set a new target until after 2020 earned it on Tuesday runner-up status in the "Fossil of the Day" award bestowed by the Climate Action Network, a coalition of 700 climate-related non-government organisations from 90 countries. The Climate Action Network said the latest European Environmental Agency projections of EU emissions indicated that a 17.5% reduction on the 1990 level had been reached by last year.

At last year's talks in Durban, agreement was reached that a new emissions-reduction treaty would be secured by 2015 for implementation by 2020. This might be too late, TimesLIVE reports.

Read the full article on www.timeslive.co.za.