US wants to cut 2020 emissions target

News

10th December, 2007

The United States is reported to be behind moves to drop tough targets for greenhouse gas emissions cuts, according to Reuters.

The news agency has quoted delegates at the climate change conference in Bali saying the US is pushing for specific targets for 2020 to be removed from any new agreement.

Delegates at the conference are meeting to try and fix emissions cuts by rich nations of 25-40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020.

However, the US said goals for 2020 should be negotiated over the next two years rather than fixed in advance. The US has previously refused to sign up to the Kyoto agreement, which set targets for emissions cuts up until 2012.

Meanwhile, the UK Government is planning a major offshore wind power drive in a bid to reduce the UK’s reliance on fossil fuels.

The Government is planning to identify sites in British waters for enough wind farms to produce 25 gigawatts of electricity by 2020, which could make Britain's off-shore wind industry twice the size of any other country.

Friends of the earth welcomed the initiative and said it would make Britain a “world leader in wind power”.

This article first appeared in the Ecologist December 2007