CLIMATE change negotiators dug themselves out of a hole last week when they agreed to resume efforts to draw up national targets and timetables for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases after 2000.
The commitment to setting national targets had apparently been made at the Climate Change Conference in Berlin in April. But a subsequent meeting in August foundered when the US insisted on more detailed analysis of how to cut emissions. 鈥淭hey said they didn鈥檛 want to agree to any targets that they didn鈥檛 know in advance they could meet,鈥� said Merylyn McKenzie Hedger, the World Wide Fund for Nature鈥檚 chief climate change campaigner. 鈥淲e suspect they wanted to put off commitments until after the US elections.鈥�
But at last week鈥檚 meeting in Geneva, the European Union pushed through a schedule for agreeing targets by early 1997. The EU鈥檚 tough proposal includes imposing compulsory measures to reduce the burning of fossil fuels. These could include taxes on aviation fuel, which is currently tax-free in most countries.
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