Emission ambitions

Countries queue up to set carbon targets

As this year’s series of IPCC reports rams home the costs and consequences of climate change, at least three countries have recently declared themselves as contenders for the ultimate low-carbon crown.

Norway’s prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg, has signed his government up to achieving carbon neutrality for the country by 2050. This will mean some hefty offsetting; a big oil and gas producer can’t see its way to eliminating all its emissions at source. In the interim, Norway has promised to cut its overall greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2020. That’s the kind of commitment the EU recently said it would match [see GF64,‘Take it from the top’]

New Zealand could provide some tough competition. Prime minister Helen Clark says she’s aiming to make it the first carbon neutral country, as well as being “truly sustainable across the four pillars of the economy, society, the environment, and nationhood”. She has yet to name a target date.

Costa Rica also thinks it can get there first. Environment minister Roberto Dobles has pledged to clean up its fossil fuel power plants, promote hybrid vehicles, and increase tree planting to balance its remaining emissions, ideally in the next 20 years.

Even Canada, shamed by its record as a serious Kyoto laggard (32% above target), now aims to change its spots with a 20% emissions cut by 2020. Environment minister John Baird is promising “one of the world’s most aggressive plans to tackle greenhouse gases and air pollution”.

24 June 2007