March 12, 2004
In the decade since the 1994 ratification of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, global warming has only gotten worse as collective efforts to tackle the problem have stalled, a Washington-based nongovernmental organization warned yesterday.
"We have not made significant progress in curbing global warming in the last decade. In fact, the latest scientific reports indicate that global warming is worsening," said Jonathan Pershing, director of World Resource Institute's program on Climate, Energy and Pollution. "We are quickly moving to the point where the damage will be irreversible."
According to the institute, greenhouse gas emissions rose 11 percent over the last decade and are expected to grow another 50 percent by 2020.
"To stabilize the atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gases that lead to global warming, we must ultimately bring net emissions of these gases to near zero," said Pershing.
The group's alert comes on the heels of a report last month commissioned by the U.S. Pentagon, which concluded that global warming could cause instability as states are forced to compete over diminishing resources. A study published in January in Nature magazine projected that global warming could push one-fourth of the world's species to the brink of extinction by mid-decade, while David King, the United Kingdom's top scientist, has publicly declared climate change the world's biggest threat.
Although 184 countries are currently signatories to the UNFCCC, progress toward implementation of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change has stalled since the United States rejected the pact in 2001.
David Jhirad, the institute's vice president for research, argued that unprecedented technology innovation, policy leadership and private capital investment must be employed in order to combat global warming.
"Accelerated development of a portfolio of technologies could stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations, enhance global energy security and eradicate energy poverty. We urgently need the political will and international cooperation to make this happen," he said.
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