Dom Post: NZ can’t stick to Copenhagen deal, say scientists

Kiran Chug writes in the Dominion Post about a new report in Nature which says that loopholes in the Copenhagen Accord and a lack of global determination are seeing hopes of keeping global temperature rise to 2 deg c by 2100 fading fast.

They caution that action is needed urgently if temperatures are not to rise by 3 or more degrees, and say that initiatives such as using carbohn credits may look good on paper, but won’t help countries reach their emissions targets in practice.

An excerpt: (read in full here)

“In the article, which appears in the international journal Nature, they say the emissions reductions targets set by countries including New Zealand will make it almost impossible to limit global warming to the agreed level.

“At the Copenhagen conference last December, countries agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to levels that would contribute to a temperature rise of no more than two degrees by 2100.

“However, Andy Reisinger, of Victoria University’s Climate Change Research Institute, said the new “hard-hitting analysis” showed that hopes of achieving that goal were fading rapidly and irreversibly.”