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National governments are legislating to fight climate change

Nations are taking action on climate change
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23079-nations-are-taking-action-on-climate-change.html
 15 January 2013 by Fred Pearce
It may be climate change’s best-kept secret. While global talks
founder, national governments are passing legislation to curb
greenhouse gas emissions – a Plan B for fighting climate change that
was hatched at 2010 climate talks in Cancun.

This optimistic message is at the centre of a new London School of
Economics analysis, published by GLOBE International, a group of
environment-minded parliamentarians. Of 33 major economies, 32 have
now passed legislation to either combat climate change or improve
energy efficiency, the analysis suggests, with industrialising
countries like China, Mexico and South Korea at the forefront.

These national measures are not enough, of course – the World Bank
recently concluded that the world is still heading for 4 degrees of
warming by 2100 – but national measures may help enable a global
emissions-cutting deal in time for the 2015 UN target date.

“Only if national regulatory frameworks are in place will it be
possible to reach an agreement in 2015,” says GLOBE secretary Adam
Matthews. There is no Plan C.

January 17, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, climate change