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Shipping emissions three times as much as estimated London (AFP) Feb 13, 2008 Carbon emissions from merchant shipping are nearly three times as much as previously estimated, according to a draft United Nations study leaked to The Guardian on Wednesday. According to the report, annual emissions from global shipping equal about 1.12 billion tonnes of CO2, or an estimated 4.5 percent of global carbon emissions. "This is a clear failure of the system," Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the UN's Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change, was quoted as saying in the newspaper, after having been contacted about the contents of the study. "The shipping industry has so far escaped publicity. It has been left out of the climate change discussion. I hope (shipping emissions) will be included in the next UN agreement. It would be a cop-out if it was not. It tells me that we have been ineffective at tackling climate change so far." Prior to the study, which was carried out by the International Maritime Organisation, a UN agency, it was estimated that shipping was responsible for around 400 million tonnes of CO2. By comparison, according to The Guardian, the aviation industry -- which has been pressured to use cleaner fuels -- is responsible for an estimated 650 million tonnes of the gas. Emissions from merchant shipping are not taken into account by the European Union when making its targets for cutting greenhouse gases. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links Our Polluted World and Cleaning It Up
New Research Offers Prioritization Plan For Reducing Nutrient Pollution In Feeder Streams Cambridge MD (SPX) Feb 12, 2008 To help resource managers improve the health of coastal waters degraded by nutrient pollution, a group of scientists has developed a framework for prioritizing stream restoration efforts aimed at reducing the amount of nitrogen flowing downstream. |
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