Environment pact to come into force

Aljazeera.Net - Environment pact to come into force: "The UN plan to curb global warming comes into force on 16 February despite a US pullout and many countries way off course to meet promised cuts in emissions of heat-trapping gases by 2012.

The Kyoto pact is meant to rein in rising temperatures that many scientists say will cause more storms, droughts and floods and raise world sea levels.

Climate shifts could disrupt farming and wipe out thousands of species of animals and plants. The 141-nation protocol, which will force countries to cap emissions of gases, enters into force years after it was agreed to in 1997...

"But opponents of Kyoto dismiss it as wasted money built on scaremongering science. 'Put bluntly, the Kyoto protocol is one of the least good investments the world can make,' said Bjorn Lomborg, Danish author of The Sceptical Environmentalist.

He said Kyoto would cost about $150 billion a year to promote a shift to renewable energies and that the cash could be better spent on combating Aids, malaria and malnutrition or on promoting free trade. [...]"