Kyoto Signatories To US - "Time Running Out" For Any Climate Action

[hatrack]

OSLO - Backers of the UN's Kyoto Protocol renewed their pleas to the United States on Thursday to do more to fight global warming, even though their own records are patchy in the year since the pact went into force.

Many experts said that time to slow a rise in temperatures widely blamed on burning fossil fuels was running out. A British report said the nation might resemble the tropics by 3000, with rising seas from melting ice swamping the coasts. The United Nations, the European Commission and many environmental groups all urged tougher action beyond Kyoto, which entered into force on Feb 16, 2005 and runs to 2012.

"We need the full participation of all major emitting countries - such as the United States, the world's leading economy, but also the world's leading polluter," European Commissioner Stavros Dimas said in marking the anniversary. He warned that the world needed to strengthen action to contain global warming or would "run out of time to contain climate change". Most scientists say warming will bring a more chaotic climate with more heatwaves, droughts and floods.

NASA has said that 2005 was the warmest year at the earth's surface since records began in the 1860s. Another recent study showed that concentrations of greenhouse gases were at the highest in 650,000 years.

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