Beating global warming need not cost the earth-UN

BANGKOK, May 4 (Reuters) Humans need to make sweeping cuts in greenhouse gas emissions over the next 50 years to keep global warming in check, but it need cost only a tiny fraction of world output, a major UN climate change report said today.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in the third of a series of reports, said keeping the rise in temperatures to within 2 degrees Centigrade would cost only 0.12 per cent of annual gross domestic product.

''It's a low premium to pay to reduce the risk of major climate damage,'' Bill Hare, a Greenpeace adviser who co-authored the report, told Reuters after the culmination of the marathon talks which ran over their four-day schedule.

''It's a great report and it's very strong and it shows that it's economically and technically feasible to make deep emission reductions sufficient to limit warming to 2 degrees,'' he said. ''It shows that the costs of doing this are quite modest.'' To keep within the 2 degree threshold which scientists say is needed to stave off disastrous changes to the world's climate, emissions of carbon dioxide need to drop between 50 and 85 per cent by 2050, the report said.

However, technological advances -- particularly in producing and using energy more efficiently -- meant that such targets were within reach, the report said.

It highlighted the use of nuclear, solar and wind power, more energy-efficient buildings and lighting, as well as capturing and storing carbon dioxide spewed from coal-fired power stations and oil and gas rigs.

ACTION NEEDED NOW The report, agreed by scientists and officials from more than 100 countries, does not set out policies. It reviews the latest science on the costs and ways to curb emissions growth and is designed as a blueprint for governments.

Current policies were inadequate, and action was needed now, it said.

''The need for immediate short-term action in order to make any significant impact in the longer term has become apparent,'' it said.

Delegates said the onus was now on governments to put the report into action.

''This is a good report to guide governments,'' Stephan Singer of environmental group WWF said.

In some cases, technology could lead to substantial benefits, such as cutting health costs by tackling pollution.

Even changing planting times for rice paddies or managing cattle and sheep flocks better could cut emissions of methane, another powerful greenhouse gas, said the report by the UN panel which draws on the work of 2,500 scientists.

Its previous two reports painted a grim future of human-induced global warming causing more hunger, droughts, heatwaves and rising sea levels which would drown low-lying islands.

In Bangkok, China and Europe sparred about the costs and levels of greenhouse gas emissions which ought to be allowed. Delegates also debated the role of nuclear power.

China, the world's number two emitter of greenhouse gases after the United States, wanted the IPCC report to exclude language which would promote stabilising emissions near current levels in part because of the limited economic studies available.

The steeper the emissions cuts, the more costly to the global economy, the report says.

In 2030 the costs for limiting greenhouse gases at ''stabilisation'' levels of between 445 and 710 ppm (parts per million) CO2-equivalent range from a 3 per cent decrease of global GDP to a small increase, it said.

However, regional costs might differ significantly from global averages, it added.

Greenhouse gas concentrations are now at about 430 ppm CO2-equivalent.

REUTERS AM PM1335