The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on Friday plans to issue a third report on ways to offset global warming. Scientists and government administrators from more than 120 countries have been hammering out the text of the report this week in Bangkok, Thailand. Early drafts indicate that countries that start now to back away from fossil fuels, will not have to wait generations to see benefits. VOA's Paul Sisco has more.
The climate change panel studied how a united world can avert the worst effects of global warming.
Jean-Pascal van Ypersele is with the delegation from Belgium. "Probably the most important thing is to improve energy efficiency. There's a lot of energy wastage everywhere in the world and that's probably one of the first things to do. The other thing to do is to understand that in the long term we won't have fossil fuel anymore. So we have to improve on the way we use renewable energy."
The report says emissions can be cut below current levels if the world shifts away from carbon heavy fuels like coal, significantly reduces deforestation and moves towards widespread energy efficiency requirements and practices.
The European Union's Tom van Ierland said, "If you say the kind of commitments we ask from India China and Brazil, let's be very clear, we don't ask them to do the same things we ask from developed countries which are taking kind of binding targets to reduce their emissions. But indeed we would like to cooperate with them better to ensure we can find the kinds of technologies -- introduce them into their markets that does see a reduction of the goal of emissions.
Lalith Chandrapala, a delegate from Sri Lanka stated his position. "Cleaner technologies developed by the developed countries should be transferred to the developing nations because we do not have the funds to develop these technologies."
The U.N. report's overall message is that the worst consequences of global warming can be averted if a united world embraces alternative technologies and is willing to change.
