BRUSSELS – Belgium is in danger of breaking a self-imposed pledge to respect the lame-duck Kyoto climate change agreement, the Belgian press reported on Friday.

Under Kyoto, Belgium promised to reduce its emissions of harmful greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (CO2) to 7.5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.

But it is now becoming increasingly clear that the country will not meet that target.

The latest figures from Belgium’s national statistical office show that CO2 emissions in Belgium are actually rising.

The Kyoto agreement was signed at a United Nations sponsored conference in 1997 in the Japanese city that gave it its name. The deal was supposed to see the entire industrialised world pledge to reduce significantly its greenhouse gas emissions by the 2012 deadline.

But the US, Russia and Australia — among the world’s worst culprits when it comes to greenhouse gas production — have all since said that they will not respect the agreement.

[Copyright Expatica News 2004]

Subject: Belgian news