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Crucial climate change agreement reached after fierce debate

THAILAND: Climate change experts agreed Friday on measures the world can take to combat global warming, following intense debate and marathon negotiations at a crucial UN conference here, a French delegate said.

Scientists and other leading authorities from 120 nations finally achieved a consensus after an exhausting session that lasted from Thursday morning until 4:30 am on Friday French delegation chief Marc Gillet told AFP.

“It is over. The report has been accepted. The formal adoption will take place in the morning,” Gillet said, adding the delegates would reconvene at 10:00 am to give the final stamp of approval.

The delegates, from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, were scheduled to wrap up on Thursday night but a few key sticking points and the sheer complexity of the document put the event into overtime, delegates said.

One sticking point subject to debate until the end was a push by China to highlight that the rich world was responsible for the vast bulk of greenhouse gasses that cause global warming, the European delegate said.

Another point of dispute was how much importance to give nuclear energy in the mix of new technologies that the world should depend upon as it moves away from fossil fuels that emit greenhouse gases, he said.

The report is the third and last from the IPCC this year, after the first two looked into the evidence and looming devastating impacts of global warming.

Although details of the final report were not immediately available, it is widely expected to warn that world leaders have little time to waste in tackling climate change.

However, it will also emphasise that the tools for reducing greenhouse gas emissions already exist and many can be quickly implemented.

A draft summary of the IPCC report seen by AFP calls for a greater use of renewable energies such as solar, wind, and hydro-power, as well as ways to use energy more efficiently.

Storing carbon dioxide, the biggest greenhouse gas, underground is also under consideration, as are tariffs and other economic mechanisms to make using fossil fuels more expensive and renewable energies much cheaper.

A top priority in tackling climate change is how to cut the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which are measured in parts per million (ppm). Today’s levels are close to 400 ppm.

The draft of the report says that if the world wants to stabilise carbon dioxide levels at 640 ppm by 2030, it would cost 0.2 percent of average global gross domestic product (GDP) in that year.

A more ambitious target of 550 ppm, the draft says, would cost 0.6 percent of GDP, and stabilising CO2 in the atmosphere at 445 to 535 ppm by 2030 — an unlikely scenario — would be about three percent of GDP.

Environmental groups warn that even at 535 ppm, the world will warm to an extremely dangerous level, causing droughts, floods and other disasters, while at 640 ppm the impacts could be catastrophic.

Bangkok, Friday, AFP

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