U.S. emissions bill a "first step": U.N. climate chief - Reuters

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

U.S. emissions bill a "first step": U.N. climate chief
Fri May 30, 2008 2:28pm EDT

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

OSLO (Reuters) - A bill going to the U.S. Senate next
week seeking deep cuts in U.S. greenhouse gases by 2050
is a "first step" but not enough to avert damaging
climate change, the head of the U.N. Climate Panel said
on Friday.

Rajendra Pachauri also said that even tougher plans by
some other developed nations to rein in emissions were
insufficient to head off some projected impacts of global
warming, ranging from more heatwaves and droughts to
rising seas.

The U.S. bill, sponsored by Sen. Joe Lieberman, a
Connecticut independent and Sen. John Warner, a Virginia
Republican, seeks to cut U.S. emissions by up to 66
percent below current levels by 2050. It will be debated
from June 2.

-snip-

He welcomed the effort as far more stringent than a plan
outlined last month by President George W. Bush that would
let U.S. emissions rise to a 2025 ceiling. The United States
and China are the top emitters of greenhouse gases.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL3015775220080530