Source: Kyodo 3/3/97
Kyodo via Individual Inc. : BONN, Feb. 28 (Kyodo) _ The United States
ranked last and
Japan last but one among 20 developed countries in terms of the level
of reduction of carbon
dioxide emissions, according to results of a survey released Friday by
the World Wide Fund
for Nature (WWF), a conservationists group.
The survey was conducted prior to a meeting to begin Monday in Bonn of
countries that
have ratified the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The 20 countries' efforts to tackle the greenhouse effects were
measured in four categories
and on a scale of 1 to 3, according to the survey.
The categories are: fulfillment of the Earth Summit commitment to
reduce carbon dioxide
emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2000, current government position
on climate change,
per-capita carbon dioxide emissions, and national carbon dioxide
emissions.
The U.S., which emits the largest volume of carbon dioxide in the
world, had the lowest
ratings in all four categories.
Japan, with the fourth largest emission volume of carbon dioxide, was
on the worst scale of 1
in three of the four categories. Only in the category of per-capita
carbon dioxide emissions
did Japan achieve a rating of 2 thanks to its energy-saving efforts,
the survey showed.
With the diffusion of cogeneration, a combination of power generation
and utilization of
waste heat, Austria got the highest mark in three of the four
categories, the exception being
the national carbon dioxide emissions.
The countries which have ratified the U.N. Climate Change Convention
will adopt a protocol
on binding measures for cutting carbon dioxide emissions beyond 2000 at
their meeting in
Kyoto, western Japan, in December.
The climate convention, initially signed by most countries attending
the 1992 U.N. Earth
Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, came into force in 1994 and has been
ratified by some 150
countries.
It aims at halting global warming through cuts in greenhouse gas
emissions, and made a
nonbinding call on industrialized nations to keep carbon dioxide
emissions at 1990 levels by
the year 2000.
The World Wide Fund for Nature said it compiled the survey in order to
urge the countries to
take emergency actions to protect the earth from the destructive
effects of global warming.
[03-01-97 at 12:18 EST, 1997, Kyodo News International]
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Building Environmental Science & Technology
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Voice# 410-867-8000 fax# 301-889-0889
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