麻豆传媒

POLITICIANS may have lost the plot on how to halt climate change. But technologists are forging ahead with a host of innovations that could halt the rise in greenhouse gas levels, says a UN panel of climate change experts in a report published this week.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says that technical innovation has been faster than anticipated five years ago, when it made its last assessment. Wind turbines, hydrogen fuel cells, efficient car engines and the technology to bury carbon dioxide underground could become practical ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

But critics believe that the IPCC has failed to give governments firm advice on how to make the new technologies work. They fear that the report, called Climate Change 2001: Mitigation will contribute to the political inaction that has followed last November鈥檚 failed Kyoto Protocol talks on curbing climate change.

This is the third major report from the IPCC in the past few weeks. Meeting in Accra, Ghana, the panel of experts from over 100 countries assessed technical and policy options for halting the droughts, floods and extreme weather predicted by the two previous reports.

In an upbeat assessment, they said that 鈥渒nown technological options鈥� could, if widely adopted, stabilise CO₂ concentrations in the atmosphere in the range of 450 to 550 parts per million. This is between 60 and 100 per cent higher than pre-industrial levels. In the past, IPCC members have often suggested 750 ppm as a more achievable target.

鈥淭he potential for technology innovation leading to clean energy and other climate-change solutions is extraordinary,鈥� said Klaus Toepfer, director of the UN Environment Programme, a sponsor of the IPCC. 鈥淕overnments need to unleash this potential.鈥�

However, critics of the report, including senior scientists within the IPCC, say that its authors have been 鈥渧ague and evasive鈥� in their recommendations. They believe that the world should adopt a firm 鈥渃eiling鈥� for CO₂ levels in the air-say, 450 or 550 ppm. This would allow governments to cut their emissions to stay below the ceiling.

鈥淚t is increasingly obvious that a stable atmospheric concentration target must be set. This needs to be conveyed urgently to policy makers,鈥� they said last week in a letter to Bert Metz, who co-chaired the report鈥檚 working group. The letter鈥檚 chief author, Aubrey Meyer of the London-based Global Commons Institute, said the report noted that the cost of meeting a target of 450 or 550 ppm would be substantially greater than for a 750 ppm target. But it failed to assess the likely benefits of a tougher target, such as fewer floods and droughts.

Meyer also attacked the report for suggesting that more scientific information was needed about 鈥渃limate change processes and impacts鈥� before governments set long-term targets. This cautious language contrasts with the much tougher tone of the panel鈥檚 two other previous reports, which both stress growing certainty about the causes, pace and impacts of climate change.