Researchers Argue For Emissions Reduction Amid Economic Growth Concerns
After a meeting of world's top climate scientists in Berlin, they announced Sunday that greenhouse gas emissions soared to "unprecedented levels" between 2000 and 2010.
They urged the world's governments to act aggressively in lowering emissions that pollute the air quality and environment, that if left untreated could cause dangerous affects from global warming, the Washington Post reported.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's report revealed, during the 2000-2010 decade, emissions caused by human development increased more than in each of the previous three decades.
According to the Post, governments must begin implementing cleaner-air technologies now and reduce the amount of emissions by 40 to 70 percent less than what they were in 2010 if the world hopes to limit the mean global temperature by mid-century.
"There is a clear message from science," Ottmar Edenhofer, the scientific group's co-chair, said. "To avoid dangerous interference with the climate system, we need to move away from business as usual."
Those dangerous interferences would start to rapidly melt arctic ice that will significantly increase sea levels, causing flooding and more storms before the end of the century, the Post reported.
Another co-chair, Rajendra K. Pachauri of India, argued that the plan to reduce emissions and limit the increasing global temperature "cannot be achieved without cooperation." He also said, "What comes out very clearly from this report is that the high-speed mitigation train needs to leave the station soon, and all of global society needs to get on board."
The week-long meeting, however, wasn't met with a unanimous consensus between developing and industrialized nations regarding solutions as they also bickered about which country was the one to blame.
Saudi Arabia disagreed with the 500-page executive summary that called on the 40 to 70 percent emissions reduction because the country could get hit with a sharp decline in its oil sales.
The report argued that there would only be a half a percentage point reduction from a countries' economic growth if they begin reallocating billions of dollars from its coal use to solar power and renewable energy instead.
Leon Clarke, a senior research economist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory who contributed to a section of the study, argued that countries will only begin to pay higher prices for the solutions the longer it waits to act
"The longer we wait, the harder this is going to get," Clarke said.