Hague Conference Focuses on Reducing Greenhouse Gas EmissionsDelegates from 180 countries and regions gathered Monday the Hague to discuss and debate on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.During the two-week United Nations conference focusing on global warming, the delegates will talk about how to slow down global warming as agreed in Kyoto, Japan, three years ago. The Hague conference, officially known as the sixth conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC was described as a "make-or-break" meeting by Michael Zammit Cutajar, the executive secretary of the UNFCCC convention. Delegates from these same countries and regions worked out a plan in 1997 in Kyoto calling for a 5.2 percent reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by 2008-2012. Yet, to be legally binding, the plan must be ratified by 55 signatories including all the developed countries, which account for reportedly 55 percent of the output of greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide. Up till now, 38 countries, all from the developing world, have ratified the Kyoto plan. "The Hague is about making sure that the Kyoto agreements are not reopened for debate again," said the conference chairman Dutch Environment Minister Jan Pronk. "It is about putting the agreements into practice." The delegates, therefore, are expected to discuss how to reduce the emissions through the clean development mechanism, joint implementation, emission trading, as well as globally-accepted surveillance and measuring systems. |
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