Forestalling global warming

The effort to forestall global warming continues Monday, Nov. 13, with the opening of the sixth session of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in the Hague to work out details of the protocol adopted three years ago in Kyoto.

Carbon dioxide emissions cannot be drastically reduced quickly enough to meet the objectives of the protocol if protracted negotiations were to delay its adoption until just before the goal of 2008-2012 set by the developed nations for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Much remains to be done before the protocol can be put into effect. There is as yet no agreement on guidelines for administering the means to achieve targets on greenhouse gas emissions, such as the issuance of emission permits for each nation.

Reducing carbon dioxide emissions could restrict industrial output. That is why negotiations among governments have been stalled; but the talks have been propelled by the force of public opinion and the efforts of non-governmental organizations. The Kyoto Protocol must not be reduced to the value of scrap paper because time has run out.

-- Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo