Source: Xinhua
04-23-2009 11:09
Special Report: Tech MaxBEIJING, April 22 (Xinhuanet) -- Global warming will dominate the talks at the G8 Environment conference in Sicily where international environment ministers gathered Wednesday.
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| Global warming will dominate the talks at the G8 Environment conference in Sicily where international environment ministers gathered Wednesday.(File photo) |
Climate change will be the focus of attention at the conference especially after U.S. President Barack Obama's new commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.
The three-day talks will bring together countries responsible for more than 40 percent of the world's carbon gas emissions. It seeks to make progress in talks due to be signed in December in Copenhagen, and to get countries to stem the loss of biodiversity.
The Copenhagen deal is due to extend beyond 2012 the Kyoto agreement, which bound 37 advanced nations to cut carbon emissions. Kyoto was hobbled by the refusal of the U.S. under former President George W. Bush to sign up.
The United Nations' top climate change official, Yvo de Boer, is attending, along with delegations from the Czech Republic -- holder of the rotating European Union presidency -- plus the European Commission and Denmark as the host of the Copenhagen Conference.
Scientists have warned that global warming caused by burning fossil fuels on a massive scale could devastate the planet, hitting the poorest countries hardest with floods, droughts and disease.
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Editor:Yang Jie
