Climate change expert: Copenhagen must fail
Climate change expert says Copenhagen doomed
Thursday, 03, Dec 2009 05:00
By Alex Steger.
A leading climate change scientist says he wants the Copenhagen meeting on climate change to fail.
James Hansen, known as the grandfather of global warming, said the 'cap and trade' system envisaged will not be effective in any case.
He has gone as far as denouncing the UN summit taking place next week in the Danish capital as a farce.
He has said that the agreements sought to limit emission through a 'cap and trade' system are counterproductive. Under these systems, he argues, governments are left to decide the limits on emissions and polluters trade quotas among themselves.
These targets have not always been met in the past. Japan missed its promised target for greenhouse gas emissions under the Kyoto agreement.
Dr Hansen, a professor at Columbia University's Earth Institute in New York, proposes instead that to control global warming an increasing carbon tax should be introduced in place of a 'cap and trade' system.
He said: "If they sign on to anything like they are talking about then it's definitely counterproductive. Any time you start down that path, it's time wasted. We would do better taking a year time-out and figuring out a better path."
He added: "We are going to have to move beyond fossil fuels at some point. Why continue to stretch it out longer?
"The only way we can do that is by putting a price on carbon emissions. The business community and the public need to understand that there will be a gradually increasing price on carbon emissions."
Dr Hansen was one of the first voices to highlight rising global temperatures in the 1980s, correctly predicting their rise over the coming decades.