Mayors urge G8 to stabilise greenhouse gas levels

NEW YORK, May 17 (Reuters) Mayors of some of the world's largest cities concluded a climate change summit today by urging the Group of Eight to commit to stabilising greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere when it meets next month.

The C40 Large Cities Climate Leadership Group also called on the leaders of the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia to take into account reports by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and former World Bank chief economist Nicholas Stern.

New York, London, Tokyo, Paris, Sydney, Johannesburg, Berlin and Sao Paulo are among more than 40 cities in the C40.

''We urge G8 leaders at their forthcoming summit in Heiligendamm to commit to a long-term goal for the stabilisation of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations,'' the C40, chaired by London Mayor Ken Livingstone, said.

Scientists say smokestack and tailpipe emissions of heat-trapping gases cause global warming, which could lead to more deadly floods, droughts and heat waves.

The IPCC, in the third of a series of reports, said keeping the rise in temperatures to within two degrees Celsius would cost only 0.12 per cent of annual gross domestic product. Stern estimated the cost of acting now was about one per cent of global output -- and five to 20 per cent if action was delayed.

The C40, which met for the second time in New York this week, also called on national governments to work more closely with them in the bid to tackle global warming.

''Cities account for 75 per cent of global carbon emissions, the fight against climate change will therefore be won or lost in cities,'' the group, which was created in London in 2005, said in a joint communique.

The IPCC has found that global carbon dioxide emissions must fall 50 to 85 per cent by 2050 to stop the planet from heating up more than two degrees Celsius.

Livingstone said the world's largest cities were banding together to tackle global warming because national governments had been too slow to respond.

Mayors from more than 30 cities and delegations from another 14 countries attended the C40 New York summit. The next C40 summit will be in Seoul within two years.

Reuters SM VP0032