Developing nations split into carbon-dioxide and oxygen camps
Developing nations in Copenhagen have split over the issue of carbon-dioxide emissions, the foul stuff belching from power stations and factory chimneys that help some of them get richer. Usually the G77 countries are rock solid over such politics. But some Indian Ocean and Pacific island states, along with the really poor African countries, now say they want much tougher emissions control than agreed in the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The islanders immediately have the most to lose from global warming. Already they are being swamped by rising waters. So they have called for global average temperatures to be limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius and greenhouse gases not to exceed 350 parts per million by 2100. The big industrial powers and some up-and-coming ones like China and India prefer a target of 450 ppm, so they can keep on growing at a rate of knots. So now there’s a new spoke in the climate change wheel. Read more: BBC, Guardian, The New York Times
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