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Conference calls for cuts to greenhouse gases

By Pip Hinman The world's leading body on climate change confirmed at a Madrid conference on November 30 that the world is warming up, and that there could be dangerous climate changes unless the production of greenhouse gases — namely carbon dioxide — is dramatically reduced. The report came from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which was attended by more than 200 climate scientists from more than 100 countries. According to Greenpeace, the new report spells out that greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are rising fast, and that average global temperatures have risen beyond natural variability during the 20th century. It states that "the balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on global climate". Despite disagreements from the major oil companies and oil-rich states such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, which stand to lose billions of dollars from cuts in the global use of fossil fuels, the IPCC's report warns that the average rate of warming is now faster than the last 10,000 years. Greenpeace's climate change director, Dr Bill Hare, said that there is "impressive new evidence" that human-enhanced warming is taking place, and that "governments now have no excuse for not cutting emissions". Australia, because of its reliance on coal-fired electricity, motor-vehicle transport and freight and land-clearing, is one of the largest producers of greenhouse gases per person in the world.