Rich Must Cut GHGs Fast

The world's richest countries must drastically reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to mitigate climate change impacts, says the lead author of a United Nations report, due for release later this month, that focuses on impacts of global warming on the developing world. To have a realistic chance of avoiding dangerous climate change, rich countries need to make cuts of at least 80 percent by 2050, said Kevin Watkins, an author of the UN's Human Development Report 2007, during a climate change workshop for Asian journalists in the Indian capital, last week. The report, entitled "Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world,'' will be released a week before the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia from Dec. 3 - 14.