Climate Deal to Miss Goal, IEA Chief Says

摘要

World leaders are heading for an agreement at the Copenhagen climate summit that will not meet the goal of keeping global temperatures below the threshold considered necessary to avoid dangerous global warming, according to the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA). With less than three days to go before a hoped-for final deal is signed, Nobuo Tanaka told International Oil Daily Wednesday that pledges now on the table would stabilize the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at around 550 parts per million (ppm), not the 450 ppm many scientists deem necessary to limit global temperature increases to 2°C and avoid the worst impacts of climate change. At 550 ppm, the limit would be 3°C. According to latest estimates, current levels are around 387 ppm.