IEA: climate-protection fight delay is 'false economy'

"For every US$1 of investment avoided before 2020," the IEA said in its World Energy Outlook report, "an additional US$4.30 would need to be spent after 2020 to compensate for the increased emissions."

Almost 200 nations are meeting later this month in Durban, to extend or replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which includes emission-reduction targets for most rich nations for the five years through 2012. According to the Bloomberg report, in September, Australia and Norway proposed a plan that would result in a new legally binding global climate-protection agreement by 2015. It is a plan that the IEA finds unacceptable, however.

For more:

• Bloomberg:
  Delaying Climate-Protection Fight is a 'False Economy,' IEA Says
  
• IEA World Energy Outlook 2011