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CO2 emission reductions not enough: Report
Aasha Khosa in New Delhi
 
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April 03, 2008 10:31 IST
In what may come handy for India and China, which are under pressure to agree on cutting down emission of greenhouses gases, a scientific report has debunked this very strategy to tackle the impact of global warming and climate change.

The 'Civil Society Report on Climate Change' prepared by the Civil Society Coalition on Climate Change -- a conglomerate of 40 scientific think-tanks from as many countries, including the US, the UK  and Italy -- that was released today clearly says that 'cutting greenhouse gas emissions in the coming two decades is not a cost-effective way to address climate change".

The report was released by deputy chairperson of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

Calling the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change approach 'alarmist' for its singular focus on reduction of emissions of five harmful GHGs, the report says 'the Kyoto protocol that was seen as the first step on the road to reducing global emission of GHGs has barely made a dent in those emissions -- in spite of costing many billions of dollars".

Presenting the report Julion Moris, who heads the London chapter of CSCCC, said that the thesis that global warming was causing rapid climate change in the world should be seen merely as the "severity" of the problems humankind was facing and, therefore, could be tackled by focusing on simple and available remedies.

He said, that the death of 10 million infants per year is attributed to diseases spread by climate change, but these could be prevented by augmenting the supply of clean water and sanitation. Also the floods could be prevented by building dams and slits.

Citing development as the best strategy to safeguard humans from ill-effects of climate change Moris said the richer nations have always seen less deaths of humans in floods than the poorer countries.

He was supporting India and China's contention that any binding cuts in emissions imposed on them would hamper their developmental plans and therefore increase poverty.

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