Merkel calls for challenging emissions controls

Merkel calls for challenging emissions controls

By Chris Giles and Gillian Tett

Published: January 24 2007 18:35 | Last updated: January 24 2007 18:55

The twin demands of action to prevent climate change and enhance energy security requires Europe to commit to challenging mandatory controls on greenhouse gasses after 2012, Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said on Wednesday.

In a marked contrast to George Bush’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, when he set an ambition to reduce gasoline usage in the US by 20 per cent over the next 10 years, Ms Merkel said she welcomed the opportunity for the European Union to “offer a [greenhouse gas] reduction target of 30 per cent, but we expect other large emitters to participate in that”.

With the US still refusing to set a mandatory limit on its emissions, the transatlantic differences remain wide, even though Ms Merkel welcomed the moves made by President Bush.

Climate change is at the top of the agenda for business leaders at the world economic forum at Davos. In rhetoric at least, business leaders in the Swiss ski resort were far closer to the German chancellor’s position, wanting certainty and expecting stronger action on climate change than that of Mr Bush.

Alain Belda, chief executive of Alcoa, the aluminium company, for example, said it was untenable for the US climate change agenda to be set by individual states. "I think the country needs one rule," he said.

In another interactive session, 71 per cent of delegates voted against a proposal that markets and voluntary actions were superior in reducing carbon emissions and insisted the motivation for action had to come from government.

Separately, both Lord Levene, chairman of the Lloyd’s insurance syndicate, and Jacques Aigrain, chief executive officer of Swiss Re, welcomed the comments by President Bush about climate change but called for more action.

“The fact that there is a recognition that the concern [about climate change] is valid... and a debate about solutions is extremely encouraging,” said Mr Aigrain.

”Climate change is the big theme that everyone is talking about here in Davos and that is welcome,” said Lord Levene.

Climate change is already forcing the insurance industry to prepare itself for rising losses as a result of increasingly costly natural disasters, Lord Levene warned.

Indeed, in recent months Lloyd’s has started conducting behind-the-scenes scenario planning for weather-related catastrophes that could cause up to $100bn losses - such as a major hurricane hitting the wealthiest parts of the American East Coast.

This would be significantly bigger than the record $80bn losses that the industry suffered in 2005, as a result of storms such as Hurricane Katrina.

”People ask who might bear the cost of climate change but the fact is that insurance sector is already bearing real costs,” Lord Levene said. “The real problem is that we just don’t know what is happening anymore,” he added, pointing out that the biggest challenge for the industry was the rising volatility of weather patterns.

In an effort to protect itself, the insurance industry has already started raising premiums for customers in potentially vulnerable sectors, such as housing on the US East Coast.

However, this move is now triggering rising protests from consumers – particularly given the benign conditions last year – and concerns about the issue this week prompted the state of Florida to create an additional fund for catastrophe reinsurance using taxpayers money, in the first such move seen in the US.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007

The best way to solve that auto emissons problem is to chain a few libs behind every car with their mouths duct taped to the exhaust pipe. They can inhale the fumes and filter it before it's released into the atmosphere.
Don't forget to change your libfilters often for best results!

The entire concept of carbon dioxide emissions EU v US is very misleading. The US has made great strides in curbing and reducing greenhouse gas emissions while the EU has actually been producing more and more.

Since some may not be able to access the WSJ ariticle directly (subscriber service) I'll point you here.

http://volokh.com/posts/1166449696.shtml

I'll admit that we should strive to harm the environment less I also believe that the whole global warming Al Gored thing is less than established by scientific fact as a man made problem.