Seventh annual Greenhouse Gas Report 3 main gases continuing to rise
Aletsch glacier, seen from the Jungfrau in August 2011; Swiss researchers are tracking Alpine permafrost changes (photo ©2011 Ellen Wallace)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Planet Earth’s three main greenhouse gases continue to rise significantly, says the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in Geneva.
It released the seventh annual World Greenhouse Bulletin Monday 21 November, showing that N2O, nitrous oxide, is now the third most important greenhouse gas, accounting for 6 percent of gases in the atmosphere. N2O plays an important role in the destruction of the stratospheric ozone layer which protects us from the harmful ultraviolet rays of the sun,” according to the WMO.
It is increasing far more rapidly than carbon dioxide (CO2), which accounts for roughly 80 percent and methane, roughly 18 percent.
The Bulletin “reports on atmospheric concentrations, and not emissions, of greenhouse gases. Emissions represent what goes into the atmosphere. Concentrations represent what remains in the atmosphere after the complex system of interactions between the atmosphere, biosphere and the oceans.”
Measurements are made by a network of stations in more than 50 countries which make up the WMO’s Global Atmosphere Watch Programme. The measurement data are quality controlled, archived and distributed by WMO’s World Data Centre for Greenhouse Gases, hosted by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).
World’s growing use of fertilizers, including manure behind N2O rise
Nitrous oxide “is emitted into the atmosphere from natural and man-made sources, including the oceans, biomass burning, fertilizer use and various industrial processes,” the report states.
“The atmospheric burden of nitrous oxide in 2010 was 323.2 parts per billion – 20% higher than in the pre-industrial era. It has grown at an average of about 0.75 parts per billion over the past 10 years, mainly as a result of the use of nitrogen containing fertilizers, including manure, which has profoundly affected the global nitrogen cycle. Its impact on climate, over a 100 year period, is 298 times greater than equal emissions of carbon dioxide.”
Northern permafrost loss a concern as methane levels rise again
Scientists are also concerned about the rise again of methane, after a period of temporary relative stabilization from 1999 to 2006, according to the report. “Since 1750, it has increased 158%, mostly because of activities such as cattle-rearing, rice planting, fossil fuel exploitation and landfills. Human activities now account for 60% of methane emissions, with the remaining 40% being from natural sources such as wetlands.” Researchers are looking into the reasons for the new increase, “including the potential role of the thawing of the methane-rich Northern permafrost and increased emissions from tropical wetlands.”
Carbon dioxide remains largest contributor to “climate forcing”
(CO2) is the single most important man-made greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. Monday’s report shows that it”
“contributes about 64% to total increase in climate forcing by greenhouse gases. Since the start of
the industrial era in 1750, its atmospheric abundance has increased by 39% to 389 parts per million
(number of molecules of the gas per million molecules of dry air). This is primarily because of
emissions from combustion of fossil fuels, deforestation and changes in land-use.
Between 2009 and 2010, its atmospheric abundance increased by 2.3 parts per million – higher than
the average for both the 1990s (1.5 parts per million) and the past decade (2.0 parts per million).
For about 10,000 years before the start of the industrial era in the mid-18th century, atmospheric
carbon dioxide remained almost constant at around 280 parts per million.”
Some improvement offset by other increases: CFCs
There is one bright spot in the report: some halocarbons are slowing decreasing, notably chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), widely used only a few years ago as refrigerants, propellants in spray cans and solvents but now widely banned. “However, concentrations of other gases such as HCFCs and HFCs, which are used to substitute CFCs because they are less damaging to the ozone layer, are increasing rapidly. These two classes of compounds are very potent greenhouse gases and last much longer in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.”
Emys, a robot developed as part of the Lirec (Living with robots and interactive companions) project funded by the EC (photo, ©2011 LIREC)
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM – The European Commission 20 July agreed to commit €7 billion to research and development, in what it says is its “biggest ever European Commission funding package”, designed to create some 174,000 jobs in the short term and another 450,000 in the long term and to stimulate nearly €80 billion in gross domestic product (GDP) growth within the next 15 years.
Research, Innovation and Science Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn says the package will be used for stimulating European innovation through research funding.
The funding will take the form of grants to 16,000 recipients in European universities and research organizations and to industry specialists, with “a focus on small and medium-sized enterprises”.
“A common problem is bridging the gap between research and the market, and this funding can help demonstrate the commercial potential of a new technology, for example, or that a new idea can work on a sufficiently large scale to be industrially viable,” the EC notes on Cordis, its news site.
“Challenges like climate change, energy and food security, health and an aging population can be better managed if public sector intervention is used effectively to stimulate the private sector and remove bottlenecks stopping the best and brightest ideas from reaching the market, due to problems such as a lack of finance or fragmentation in research.”
How the money will be spent
The EC details how the funds will be distributed. Key points include:
La Poste commemorative one Swiss franc stamp, issue date 3 March 2011
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The WWF this week begins to celebrate its 50th birthday, kicking off with a new social network version of the four-year-old Earth Hour project to scale up hugely what is already called “the biggest environmental awareness campaign” in the world.
WWF Switzerland is also celebrating 50 years: the international organization was officially founded by Swiss and British environmentalists before that label was fashionable, 29 April 1961.
Its first world head office was in Morges, canton Vaud but WWF now operates from Gland, closer to Geneva. Its original name was the World Wildlife Fund, which is officially changed to the Worldwide Fund for Nature in 1986. The US and Canada opted to continue using the old name. The Swiss WWF has an annual budget of CHF53 million. The international WWF budget is CHF525m. The worldwide organization employs 5,400 people and has 5 million “supporters”.
©2011 WWF, may not be reproduced without permission
The panda has been used for the WWF logo since the start. It “originated from a panda named Chi-chi that was transferred from the Beijing Zoo to the London Zoo in the same year of the establishment of WWF,” wikipedia says.
“As the only giant panda residing in the Western area at that time, along with its physical features and status as an endangered species, the panda is seen to serve the need of a strong recognizable symbol of the organization. Moreover, the organization also needed an animal that would have an impact in black and white printing.”
The logo was designed by Sir Peter Scott from the preliminary sketches made by a Scottish naturalist, Gerald Watterson.
To mark the WWF’s creation in early 1961 the Swiss post office is issuing a special commemorative stamp Thursday 3 March.
La Poste notes in its release statement: “The giant panda has been the hallmark of WWF, founded in Switzerland in 1961, since its inception. Consequently, it is fitting that a panda should adorn the special stamp designed by Pierre Aerni for the world’s largest environmental protection organization. The rare animal’s main source of food is also an element of the motif. The mandatory Helvetia lettering at the left-hand edge is composed of bamboo shoots.
WWF is using the birthday to focus attention on a new drive to combat climate change but it is also stepping back for a moment to remind people of some of its successes:
- saving forests has been a major concern and today 8.5 percent of world commerce uses wood from forests that are FSC certified as sustainable
- fish consumption has been rising worldwide and over-fishing today is 50 percent of industrial catches, but the MSC responsible fisheries certification programme begun in 1997 now covers 7 percent of the fishing industry
- WWF works closely with governments and local groups to combat trafficking in animals, which is very lucrative.
wolf photo, ©2011 Tambako, flickr.com/photos/tambako/
Closer to home, WWF Switzerland has been involved in a wide range of projects to protect the environment and also species: two notable projects have been its efforts to protect the native habitats of hares and its fight to save the wolf.
A successful programme in canton Graubuenden to protect herds from wolves and discourage hunting the wild animals is touted as an example for other areas, such as canton Valais, where tensions between farmers and wildlife protection groups continue to run high.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The new United Nations “independent platform” that was officially born 20 December, IPBES (Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services), “will in many ways mirror the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which has assisted in catalyzing worldwide understanding and governmental action on global warming,” according to an official statement released by the UN Environmental Programme, Unep.
IPBES, based in Nairobi, Kenya, was approved by governments in June at a meeting in Korea coordinated by Unep, but establishing it formally required a resolution to be passed by the UN General Assembly. The new body is designed to ” catalyz[e] a global response to the loss of biodiversity and world’s economically-important forests, coral reefs and other ecosystems”, says the UN statement.
Greenland and the Arctic circle
(video) Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The main greenhouse gases rose 1 percent from 2008 to 2009 and 27.5 percent from 1990 to 2009, the 2009 Greenhouse Gas Bulletin published by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in Geneva. The higher levels reflect the “rising atmospheric burden of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide”, the three main gases, which, together with other gases “have reached their highest levels recorded since pre-industrial times”. They are now 158 percent higher than in 1748.
The report was published Wednesday 24 November and is the sixth since the series was begun in 2004. The material is gathered by the Gaws (Global Atmosphere Watch) programme, part of the WMO. Its appearance five days before the start of a major climate change meeting of governments in Cancun, Mexico, could spark further debate over the measurement systems and science used by governments when making decisions about climate change.
Also disquieting, the report notes: emissions of methane from Arctic permafrost and wetlands areas rose despite the global economic downturn. Their rise is a growing concern, it says, and more attention is being focused on gathering information that will allow better understanding of the phenomenon.
Nasa, the US space administration, will be sending five new measuring tools into space shortly as part of a weather and climate satellite programme, part of the growing international effort to increase and improve measurements.
video: Monitoring Greenhouse Gases, with Len Barrie, WMO research department
The WMO report details changes for the main gases:
Climate change funding faces cloudy prospects
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Details of a massive transfer of $100 billion a year to cover the costs of global warming are being hammered out by officials from more than 40 countries meeting in Geneva 2 and 3 September. One of the few outcomes of the failed Copenhagen Climate Conference in December 2009 was a non-binding agreement by the rich world to fund the effects on poorer nations of climate change. The goal is to find long-term ways to cover those costs.
Delegates are haggling about the financing in an economic environment that is decidedly less promising than a few years ago. The European Union and the USA would prefer more funds to come from private enterprise; poorer countries are looking for transfers of public money, and expect massive increases in aid. Some want to reduce carbon emissions, others need the money urgently to mitigate the effects of dramatic climate change. The unusually heavy monsoon rains and the resulting flooding in Paksistan is just one dramatic example of the world’s changing climate.
Mexico hosts the next round of the climate change talks in November, and Switzerland has agreed to co-host this week’s more informal meeting on the various options open to countries. The talks are meant to find consensus on the contentious issues that caused the Copenhagen summit to fail. Emerging powerhouses like China, Brazil and India feel that a curb on their carbon emissions will stymie economic growth, and insist that the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere now were put there by the rich world in the past century and a half. Smaller and poorer nations, such as Bangladesh or Pakistan, are subject to the direct effects of extreme weather; island nations in oceans that may rise significantly as a result of melting ice caps are threatened existentially.
Links to other sites: Bloomberg, Federal Office for the Environment, Le Temps,
Climate extremes: view from a Swiss igloo
desert (photo, ©2010, Peter Brodbeck)
Update 13:00 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Dutch government has backed the “core conclusions” of Geneva-based IPCC’s landmark climate change study, published in 2007. The Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change came under fire in 2009 for errors in the report. The Dutch environment minister later asked The Netherlands’ Environmental Assessment Agency to carry out a review of about one-third of the 3,000 page report, and IPCC issued a statement on the findings Monday 5 July.
“The review is explicit in its finding that the key conclusions of the IPCC 4th Assessment Report are accurate, correct and supported entirely by the leading science in the field,” says Martin Parry, co-chair of AR4 working group II.
The reviewers looked at 32 statements on regional impacts of climate change and their summary notes that all 32 are “well founded and none were found to contain any significant errors.”
The Financial Times points out that while most errors found were typos or footnote details, the Dutch review does criticize the IPCC report for being overly negative at times about the impact of climate change, a criticism rebuffed by IPCC scientists Monday.
The Dutch review is one of several, prompted by the extent to which governments use the IPCC report as their benchmark for climate issues.
The fifth IPCC Assessment Report is underway, with the names of the 831 contributing scientists announced in late June in Geneva. Sixty percent of them are new to the report, bringing fresh perspectives, says the IPCC. Contributors from developing countries comprise 30 percent of the group and women, 25 percent.
The report will have three working groups (WG). WGI focuses on the physical science basis and will include 258 experts. WGII assesses the impacts, adaptation strategies and vulnerability related to climate change and will involve 302 experts. WGIII covers mitigation response strategies in an integrated risk and uncertainty framework, and its assessments will be carried out by 271 experts.
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World Economic Forum to take on some of the work
Kofi Annan, president of the Global Humanitarian Forum at its annual meeting
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Global Humanitarian Forum, set up in 2007 with Kofi Annan, newly retired UN director-general as its leader, will “cease activity”, the Swiss federal government announced Wednesday 31 March. Bern will spend CHF1.75 million to pay salaries during the contractual period and to cover half of the debts of the “over-indebted organization, based in Geneva.
The other half of the debt will be picked up by an unnamed member of the private foundation’s board.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Lausanne and 29 other Swiss cities and towns are participating in Earth Hour and will turn out their lights starting at 20:30 Saturday night 27 March. A record 5,000 cities in 125 countries are joining in this year, to underscore the need for action to deal with the impact of climate change. The Eiffel Tower and Las Vegas will turn out their lights at 20:30 local time.
Don’t be shocked if you’re suddenly in the dark in one of these Swiss cities Saturday night:
Governments asked Ban Ki-moon and IPCC for external review
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) Chair Rajendra Pachauri have asked the InterAcademy Council (IAC), a group of the world’s leading science academies, to review the scientific procedures of the Geneva-based IPCC. IPCC was created in 1986 but came into the limelight in 2007 when it won the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with former US Vice-president Al Gore for work on climate change. The group has come under pressure since the news surfaced in recent months that its 2007 report on climate change contained scientific errors which were not caught in the approvals and editing process.
The two men asked for the review after IPCC member governments requested it.
In a statement issued as part of a press conference in New York to announce the review, the IPCC and the Ban’s office stated that:
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Geneva-based IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), appears unready to bow to pressure to step down, if comments made to the BBC Friday 5 February are any indication.
“‘There is one mistake that occurred unfortunately, and we have clearly accepted that; we have expressed regret that it took place,’” the BBC quotes him as saying. “‘But there’s a huge volume of science over there – I mean, the IPCC’s fourth assessment report is a massive piece of work – and I think all of what we have said over there is totally valid.’”
Pachauri is in Delhi, India, for an IPCC sustainability conference.
Researchers and others in the climate change field are calling on Pachauri to accept personal responsibility for a significant error that was part of a recent IPCC report on climate change, which stated incorrectly that Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035.
US President Barack Obama said in his first State of the Union address, the annual presidential speech, that a top priority now is to see more jobs created, insisting that he wants to see a jobs bill from Congress soon. He also made it clear that his liberal agenda remains firmly in place, led by the drive for healthcare reform and climate-change legislation.
Links to other sites: BBC, The Globe & Mail, Canada, New York Times, NPR
Lumding Himalaya. Photos by photographer Jef Maion. www.maion.com
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Himalayan glaciers are under threat to melt by 2035, according to a widely-read scientific report on the state of the world’s climate. This has now been revealed to be inaccurate, after news organizations, including the BBC, pointed out the error. The report was produced by the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The report contains “poorly substantiated estimates of rate of recession and date for the disappearance of Himalayan glaciers”, according to the IPCC website 20 January.
WMO says temperatures up, also calls for drought indices
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Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Climate change and global warming are under discussion in chilly Copenhagen this week, and in Geneva the World Meteorological Organization is contributing its share of scientific data to heat up the debate. The WMO late Tuesday published its latest report on global temperature changes, which shows that “2009 is likely to rank in the top 10 warmest on record since the beginning of instrumental climate records in 1850.”
US President Barack Obama 25 November became the latest head of state to say he will be in Copenhagen for the climate conference, COP 15, in mid-December. Obama’s staff announced his travel plans as part of a statement that he is personally committed to cutting US emissions by 17 percent below 2005 levels during the next 10 years, and by 83 percent by 2050. The US House of Representatives, the lower house of Congress, have passed a climate change bill, but the Senate, the upper house has not. A formal US commitment will require full congressional approval in the form of a jointly agreed bill.
China’s envoy to the conference, Yu Qingtai, announced Thursday 26 November that his country will go to COP 15 determined to have the same framework that was part of the Kyoto agreement, which the Copenhagen summit is designed to replace. Kyoto called for 37 wealthy countries to make commitments to cutting Co2 emissions, but not developing countries. The US was the only major country not to sign the Kyoto agreement.
Links to others sites: COP 15, CNN, Financial Times, Los Angeles Times, White House blog
US President Barack Obama has thrown his weight behind reforming the US healthcare system and commiting the country to passing significant climate change legislation before world leaders meet in Copenhagen in December to replace the Kyoto agreement on CO2 emission. It now appears that lawmakers may not have the time or energy to deal with climate change laws that will increase consumers’ energy costs, with the fight to reform health care becoming bogged down. Obama will address Congress Wednesday 9 September in what is increasingly being portrayed as a key speech to get the health debate back on the rails. NPR, Reuters
Some 700,000 homes along the coastline in Australia are at risk from erosion as sea levels rise: the government says it expects the level to rise by one meter within 40 years, thanks to global warming. Some homes have already lost substantial amounts of land around them, from storms but also higher water levels, reports Reuters.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – If you’re too busy to dive into the complex topics surrounding climate change, under discussion in Geneva 31 August to 4 September during the third World Climate Conference in 30 years, consider these facts:
- Carbon sinking: any natural store of carbon that can absorb CO2 from the air, such as forests, grasslands and oceans. (WWF jargon buster & acronyms, climate change)
- Zebra mussels, tiny freshwater mollusks, invaded US waterways in the early 1980s, imported from Russia, and they now post water management problems in many areas, complicating existing problems due to changes in water levels and quality. (Boston.com and Trout Unlimited)
- Globally, 10 of the hottest years on record have occurred since 1990 (records began in 1861)(Cambridgeshire CC, UK)
- Read more…
Gordon Shepherd, WWF international policy and Martin Sommerkorn, WWF Arctic research, at Geneva climate conference
Photo: Marco Tedesco, WWF
Complete coverage of the WCC-3 by GenevaLunch
Conference is 31 August – 4 September 2009
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – One-quarter of the world’s population is likely to be affected by rising ocean levels provoked by melting Arctic ice, a WWF study released 2 September shows. The Arctic is heating up at twice the rate of the rest of the Earth, the new Arctic Climate Feedbacks report shows. As a result, the level of oceans can be expected to rise by one metre by the end of the 21st century, twice as fast as current predictions suggest.
The report pulls together the most recent data covering the Arctic and its impact. It includes the ice sheets of Greenland and West Antarctica in global sea level projections, which were not included in the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) 2007 assessment of the Arctic, widely relied on. The addition of these areas appears likely to change temperature and precipitation patterns in Europe and North America, affecting agriculture, forestry and water supplies, the new data shows.
Photo: Marco Tedesco, WWF
The Arctic holds twice as much carbon as the rest of the world and the study indicates that as warming speeds up, carbon released by warmer soils could reach significant levels. Read more…
Lake Geneva
Complete coverage of the WCC-3 by GenevaLunch
Conference is 31 August – 4 September 2009
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Geneva is home this week to a key global conference on how the world can adapt to climate change – disasters such as floods and hurricanes, but also the more subtle changes that affect agriculture, tourism and daily life.
The conference agenda is wide-ranging and includes improvements to early warning systems for disasters and how to provide more precise and more localized weather forecasting, needed by developing countries as well as industries in the developed world.
The meeting is hosted by Switzerland and organized by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and a group of partners.
Two days of talks billed as a “strategic and economic dialogue” between China and the US concluded Tuesday 28 July in Washington DC, with nothing concrete but with broad agreement on ways to combat the world recession and on climate change. The two say they are now closer on a variety of issues, among them US strategic concerns on Iranian and North Korean nuclear ambitions. On the economic front, the Chinese government worries about the value of its massive holdings of US treasury debt, given huge US budget deficits and the resulting danger of inflation, and very low US savings. The US wants China to increase domestic spending to reduce its reliance on the export market, and to show flexibility on its exchange rate. Both remain committed to open trade and say they vowed to resist protectionism. US President Obama has called for a concerted effort to reduce carbon emissions, but developing economies like China hesitate because they fear this will cramp their growth. BBC, CNN, Le Temps (Fre), NZZ (Ger)
China is the world’s third largest economy and now the “world’s top greenhouse gas emitter,” notes Reuters, as Todd Stern, the US official with responsibility for climate change policy, visits Beijing, the latest in a series of meetings designed to move closer to agreement on gas emissions. China is grappling with balancing strong growth and reducing emissions. A Chinese official quoted by Reuters, Gao Guangsheng, says that “bridging disputes on basic principles will probably push talks to the wire” in December in Copenhagen meeting. Ministers from several countries will be meeting then to replace the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. Xinhua
Kofi Annan
Bern, Switzerland (TSR, Fre) – The Global Humanitarian Forum set up in 2007 by Kofi Annan, former UN director-general, is being audited by the Swiss government, reports TSR. Switzerland has contributed CHF500,000 in 2009 and is scheduled to pay another half million this year once the audit is completed. The decision to carry out a financial review was taken by Bern in September 2008. The forum’s “strategic focus” is the human impact of climate change, with its “centrepiece” a 23-24 June conference in Geneva, scheduled to host 400 world political and business leaders.
World climate conference to be held in Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The World Climate Conference, to be held in Geneva in August, has received an important pledge of financial support from the US, however, the Associated Press reports that a formal submission presented by the US to the United Nations offers no specifics for achieving a low-carbon strategy for long-term net emissions reductions by 2050.
Corey Billington, IMD
John R Wells, IMD
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Companies will need to focus on efficiency and minimizing lost profits while ensuring that they don’t forget their role as global citizens, says John R Wells, president of IMD. “In light of the current economic situation, sustainability is more important than ever,” and companies have to juggle social, environmental and economic considerations with sustainable performance in order to contribute to long-term prosperity.
US President Barack Obama will have a chance to show his new US approach to climate change and in particular limits to CO2 emissions with a special meeting in Washington starting Tuesday 28 April. It brings together the worst polluters, including the US, China and India, Reuters reports, as part of a gathering of major economies in advance of a December UN summit on climate change, in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The cryosphere includes the area around the top of the Matterhorn in canton Valais
Rome, Italy (The Independent, UK) – This may come as a surprise to many Swiss, but Italy is planning to officially move the border with Switzerland. The Italian parliament is preparing a law for April that will legally change the border, fixed since 1861, redrawing the line through the cryosphere, or eternal snow area in the Alps. Melting glaciers are the primary reason.
Climate changes are moving “beyond the patterns of natural variability within which our society and economy have developed and thrived,” possibly becoming irreversible, according to a group of 2,000 climate change scientists meeting in Copenhagen to prepare the way for a major political meeting on climate change that will take place in the city in December 2009. CNN
US former Vice-president and Nobel laureate Al Gore received a warm reception in Congress when he told the US politicians the world is nearing a critical point of irreversible climate change and it has become urgent for the US to join talks on an international climate treaty. CNN
European leaders meeting in Poland hailed their agreement on limiting CO2 emissions and other climate change measures as “historic,” with French President Nicolas Sarkozy saying no other continent has agreed to such measures, according to the International Herald Tribune. The paper emphasizes, however, that the governments gave in to pressure from East European countries’ (it includes Poland and Hungary in this area) electric utilities and heavy industry sectors such as chemicals and steel, who argued that they cannot afford the changes in the current economic climate. So while Europe has now agreed to reduce CO2 emissions by 20% by 2020, it has also given several industries far longer to adapt than originally planned. Related articles: Financial Times
