EU calls for global carbon market | |||
The European Commission has called for a global carbon trading market as part of a plan to tackle climate change. The EU is already committed to expanding its Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), but now it is urging other industrialised countries to join in. The commission says that by 2015 it wants to link the ETS to other carbon trading systems. The goal is to include emerging economies by 2020. A UN climate conference in Copenhagen in December is to strive for a deal. The commission proposals presented on Wednesday are designed as the EU's contribution to the UN debate, with the aim of getting a new global pact on measures to tackle climate change.
The pact would be a successor to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which was not ratified by the US, the world's biggest polluter. The commission, which draws up EU legislation, wants poorer developing countries to put in place plans to cut greenhouse gases. It says that to cut emissions, more investment will be needed globally - rising to as much as 175bn euros (£162bn) annually by 2020. More than half of that investment will be needed in developing countries, the commission says. Kim Carstensen, a climate specialist with the conservation group WWF, said the EU should "concentrate on what Europe should do if it wants to reclaim the reputation of leading in the fight against climate change". In December the European Parliament backed a package of EU measures to combat global warming, including a pledge to cut carbon emissions by 20% by 2020, compared with 1990 levels. But critics said concessions made to some industrial sectors would lessen the package's long-term impact. Scientists say carbon dioxide emissions need to be cut by 25-40% by 2020 for there to be a reasonable chance of avoiding dangerous climate change. The EU aims to boost its use of renewable sources to 20% of total energy use and achieve a 20% cut in energy consumption by 2020. The EU's ETS system for trading CO2 allowances was launched in 2005. It covers heavy industry and big power plants, but gradually more sectors will be included. Mr Carstensen of WWF said emissions trading initiatives ought to be supplemented by "measures such as emissions performance standards for Europe's power stations". He said California had shown the way, and "Europe will increasingly be presented with the choice to follow suit or be left behind". FROM BBC. | |||
Utah Mormons, Protestants finding new spiritual home in ancient Orthodox church
By BOB MIMS | The Salt Lake Tribune The Salt Lake Tribune It shook the fundamentalist Christian world to its roots: Hank Hanegraaff , the darling of evangelicals as host of the long-running, nationally syndicated "Bible Answer Man" broadcast, had joined the Greek Orthodox Church. Hanegraaff, for nearly 30 years president of the Christian Research Institute, an evangelical apologetics ministry, also has written 20 books opposing purported cults and heresies and non-Christian faiths. If ever evangelicals had a doctrinal superhero, Hanegraaff was he. But on Palm Sunday, in a video released via social media , there was the 67-year-old Hanegraaff kneeling for "Holy Chrismation" — a rite of anointing with oil accompanying baptism — inside St. Nektarios Greek Orthodox Church of Charlotte, N.C. Within days, Bott Radio Network, a 107-station strong, evangelical broadcasting empire, severed its longstanding relationship with him; other criti...
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