Climate-change debate heats up

WASHINGTON — The United States, under pressure from other nations as one of the world's largest greenhouse-gas polluters, will present a target for reducing carbon dioxide emissions at next month's climate conference in Copenhagen, Obama administration officials said Monday.

The development came as the European Union urged the United States and China to deliver greenhouse gas emissions targets at the long-anticipated summit, saying their delays were hindering global efforts to curb climate change.

For nearly a year the Obama administration has indicated it would eventually come up with specific targets for quick reductions in pollution that causes global warming, as part of international negotiations. Those targets will soon be made public, officials said.

A senior administration official, briefing reporters only on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the administration's thinking, said that all countries, including the U.S., "will need to put their emissions targets on the table."

Also Monday, the U.N. weather agency reported greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere reached record highs in 2008, with carbon dioxide levels increasing faster than previously.

Levels of greenhouse gases, believed to be responsible for global warming, have been rising every year since detailed records started being kept in 1998, the World Meteorological Organization said.

The WMO report comes as the European Union urged the United States and China on Monday to set targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions at the Copenhagen conference.

The gases — carbon dioxide, or CO2; nitrous oxide, N2O; and methane, CH4 — are produced partly by natural sources, such as wetlands, and partly by human activities such as fertilizer use or fuel combustion.

Carbon dioxide — the main greenhouse gas in the atmosphere — was 385.2 parts per million in 2008, up 2 parts per million from 2007, the World Meteorological Organization said.

Some scientists say carbon dioxide concentrations are on their way to a near-certain record high above 390 in the first half of next year.

"For the past million years we've never seen 390. You have to wonder what that's going to do," said physicist John Barnes, director of the observatory atop Hawaii's Mauna Loa.

The Obama administration has resisted talking specific numbers on reducing greenhouse gas without the backing of Congress, which is not expected to pass climate legislation until next year at the soonest. The official would not offer details about the U.S. targets but said any U.S. goal will reflect the unfinished state of legislation on Capitol Hill and would not seek to get ahead of it.