Greenhouse gas cuts vital - Meacher

Rising temperatures could cause weather chaos

Environment Minister Michael Meacher has warned that "drastic cuts" in greenhouse gases are vital if global warming is to be prevented.

It is by the far the worst problem the world faces today

Michael Meacher

Climate change experts and government officials from around the world were meeting in the Hague on Monday to discuss ways of reducing carbon dioxide emissions, which if unchecked will send the weather haywire.

The United Nations talks in the Dutch city are a follow up to the Kyoto conference in 1997, when countries signed a legally binding agreement to curb fossil fuel emissions by 5.2% by 2012.

No cheating

Ensuring each country does not exceed its allocation of greenhouse gases - the amount it is allowed to release into the atmosphere - is a key issue.

Mr Meacher said it was important that countries do not try and cheat: "It is in the interests of all of us to have firm and enforceable rules and I believe that we shall get that."

One area of concern was nations "purchasing" extra emissions capacity from less polluting countries.

Another was countries relying on natural "carbon sinks" such as forests to absorb the extra carbon in the air, rather than cutting emissions.

Mr Meacher said that the US wanted a substantial proportion of its emission reductions to come from natural sinks.

"That is a much wider definition than we wish to countenance. They want to include forest management and grasslands."

Fire and flood

The minister said it was important the US played its part in combating global pollution.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "The important point is that the US has four percent of the world's population and accounts for 25% of global gas emissions and 36% of emissions from the industrialised world.

"Unless all countries play according to the rules and take action all of us are going to suffer as we have seen in the last three years with floods, tornadoes and inextinguishable forest fires."

Level playing field

Mr Meacher said the another major problem was getting developing companies to support emissions reduction.

Many countries feel aggrieved at being asked to make sacrifices for a problem caused by the rich industrialised countries.

Mr Meacher said these governments were "clearly orchestrated by Saudi Arabia and are going to make substantial demands.

"My belief is that we probably will reach a settlement and not least because it is in the interests of the developing countries to have a successful conference, as many of them are the biggest victims of this process," he said.