I'm not saying we shouldn't cut emissions.

And not only that, when you cut emissions, you don't cut concentrations, because concentrations, the amount of CO2 in the air, is the sum of emissions over time.

It does too little to cut global emissions, and it requires too few countries to cut their emissions growth. But it is part of international law, and that is vital.

Why not do both invest in R D, but still promise to cut carbon emissions now?

Why not do both invest in R amp D, but still promise to cut carbon emissions now?

However, the EU doesn t just want to cut emissions in the smartest possible way, but also to increase the share of renewable energy in the Union by 20 by 2020. This increase has no separate climate effect, since we ve already promised to cut emissions by 20 .

The negotiations are mainly about which groups of countries should cut their emissions, by how much, how fast, and relative to which baseline year. Countries are being pressed to cut emissions by 2020 by certain percentage targets, without much serious discussion about how the cuts can be achieved.

Los Angeles Tackling global warming, we are often told, is the defining task of our age. An army of pundits tells us that we need to cut emissions, and cut them immediately and drastically.

Hypothetically, switching off the lights for an hour would cut CO2 emissions from power plants around the world. But, even if everyone in the entire world cut all residential lighting, and this translated entirely into CO2 reduction, it would be the equivalent of China pausing its CO2 emissions for less than four minutes.

I think there is a serious problem as you talk about this, people begin to think they don't need to work so hard to cut emissions.

Average CO2 emissions CO2 emissions 1995

Trends in CO2 emissions from transport, total CO2 emissions and total GHG emissions

The UN Environment Program s just published report Bridging the Emissions Gap shows that over the course of this century, warming will likely rise to four degrees unless we take stronger action to cut emissions. Yet the latest evidence demonstrates that we are not acting the International Energy Agency s World Energy Report 2011 reveals that CO2 emissions have rebounded to a record high.

Emissions

Cut. Cut. That won't do.

In Rio de Janeiro in 1992, politicians from wealthy countries promised to cut emissions by 2000, but did no such thing. Leaders met again in Kyoto in 1997 and promised even stricter carbon cuts by 2010, yet emissions keep increasing, and Kyoto has done virtually nothing to change that.

When you can get rid of all of those because somebody doesn't use any of them really, you find that you can actually cut transportation emissions as much as 90 percent.

1990 emissions

These other emissions are estimated based on the estimated percentage of these emissions relative to total emissions at previous meetings.

3. emissions waste measures (of mass and volume of emissions and wastes)

You want some of me?! Cut! Cut!

Emissions limits targets

Fugitive fuel emissions

Fugitive fuel emissions

(c) Less any emissions transferred to another Annex Party for their emissions budget under emissions trading provisions permitted in pragraphs 2.1 and 2.2

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Indeed, there is something fundamentally immoral about the way we set our priorities. The OECD estimates that the world spends at least 11 billion of total development money just to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

(c) A Party whose emissions are in excess of its emissions budget in any budget period may acquire, but may not transfer, emissions allowed.

For example, the EU demanded that renewables like wind and solar account for 20 of energy supplies by 2020, though this is by no means the cheapest way to cut emissions. In fact, putting up a wind turbine cuts no extra CO2, because total emissions are already capped under the EU wide carbon trading scheme.

At the same time, carbon dioxide emissions are rising the European Union's target is to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 8 by 2010 but with current policies, only 0.5 will be achieved. Of the world's species, 12 of birds, 24 of mammals, and 30 of fish are either vulnerable or in immediate danger of extinction.

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Cut... The player's allowed to cut at any time.

Now, even lower emissions!

It's about energy emissions.

The Particle Emissions Dilemma

Fugitive Emissions from fuels

Long term emissions profiles.