MAASTRICHT, Netherlands — As international scientists confirmed earlier predictions that climate change will happen unless cuts to fossil fuel emissions are made, Greenpeace warned that governments are still taking little heed.
At the end of a meeting of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Scientific Assessment Working Group in Maastricht on September 15, chairperson Sir John Houghton confirmed that:
- If C02 emissions were held constant at present levels, atmospheric concentrations would continue to rise for at least 200 years;
- Stabilisation at any of the concentration levels studied is possible only if emissions are eventually reduced well below 1990 levels;
- Ice-core records show that there is a clear correlation between atmospheric CO2 concentration and global temperature, especially during warming periods. This relationship between increasing CO2 concentration and temperature may carry forward into the future, possibly causing a significant climate feedback on CO2 fluxes;
- In response to climate change, model results indicate major releases of CO2 (20-80% of fossil fuel emissions in 1990) from the die-back of vegetation in the next century;
- Fossil fuels are responsible for over 50% of greenhouse gas emissions (over 60% if CFCs, which are being phased out, are excluded).
Bill Hare of Greenpeace International said this latest scientific update on climate change gave a much stronger warning than previous assessments on the capacity of feedbacks to amplify global warming. Much stronger emissions cuts were needed, and, again, the scientists confirmed that fossil fuels were the principal target.
"Two weeks ago, governments concluded a meeting on the Climate Convention without taking further action to cut their emissions of greenhouse gases, primarily from fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas", said Hare.
"Again and again we saw the coal and oil industry, with the backing of the Kuwaiti and Saudi governments, attempting to muzzle the scientists and water down the scientific conclusions", said Hare. One of the worst examples was a fossil fuel lobbyist and Kuwait attempting to stop the reporting of the scientific calculations of the emissions that would stabilise atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide.