UN climate chief in new emissions warning
May 14, 2013, Tuesday
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THE world has entered a "new danger zone" with levels of Earth-warming carbon dioxide in the atmosphere never before experienced by humankind, the UN's climate chief warned yesterday.
When it breached the CO2 threshold of 400 parts per million (ppm) last week, the world "crossed a historic threshold and entered a new danger zone," Christiana Figueres said in a statement urging policy action.
The level measured by US monitors has not existed on Earth in 3 to 5 million years - a time when temperatures were several degrees warmer and the sea level was 20 to 40 meters higher than today, experts say.
Before the Industrial Revolution, when man first started pumping carbon into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels, CO2 levels were about 280ppm - rising steadily since records began in the 1950s.
The 400ppm threshold had been expected to be breached for some time, but campaigners say it should nevertheless serve as a wake-up call in efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
"The world must wake up and take note of what this means for human security, human welfare and economic development," said Figueres.
Negotiators under the auspices of the United Nations are seeking by 2015 to develop a new, global climate treaty to take effect by 2020.
Nations are simultaneously attempting to find short-term solutions pre-2020 to closing the growing gap between agreed carbon emission targets and the actual curbs required to contain warming.
The next round of high-level talks are to take place in Warsaw, Poland, in December.
When it breached the CO2 threshold of 400 parts per million (ppm) last week, the world "crossed a historic threshold and entered a new danger zone," Christiana Figueres said in a statement urging policy action.
The level measured by US monitors has not existed on Earth in 3 to 5 million years - a time when temperatures were several degrees warmer and the sea level was 20 to 40 meters higher than today, experts say.
Before the Industrial Revolution, when man first started pumping carbon into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels, CO2 levels were about 280ppm - rising steadily since records began in the 1950s.
The 400ppm threshold had been expected to be breached for some time, but campaigners say it should nevertheless serve as a wake-up call in efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
"The world must wake up and take note of what this means for human security, human welfare and economic development," said Figueres.
Negotiators under the auspices of the United Nations are seeking by 2015 to develop a new, global climate treaty to take effect by 2020.
Nations are simultaneously attempting to find short-term solutions pre-2020 to closing the growing gap between agreed carbon emission targets and the actual curbs required to contain warming.
The next round of high-level talks are to take place in Warsaw, Poland, in December.
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