This year, the United Nation's International Panel on Climate Change issued a series of reports that concluded there is no longer any doubt that human activities are causing the planet to warm up. The IPCC called for an immediate response from the international community. The U.N. panel's work earned them a share of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. The panel's findings heightened international awareness of the need for urgent action to mitigate climate change and to prepare for its consequences.
在印度尼西亚巴厘岛召开的联合国气候变化会议12月中旬结束。与会代表呼吁在京都议定书的有效期于2012年截止之前，国际社会在控制温室气体排放方面能够达成协议。今年早些时候，联合国政府间气候变化专业委员会公布了有关全球气候变暖的一系列报告，这些报告得出结论，认为人类的各种活动导致全球气温升高已经毋庸置疑。这个委员会呼吁国际社会立即针对这一现象采取行动。由于工作成果显著，这个委员会成为2007年度诺贝尔和平奖得主之一。这个委员会的各种研究成果提醒人们注意，必须采取果断措施来减缓气候变暖的速度，并做好准备应对气候变暖的后果。
By any measure, 2007 stands up as a critical year in the effort to combat global warming, according to Eileen Claussen, President of the non-profit Pew Center on Global Climate Change. "It was a spectacular game-changing year, which doesn't mean that we have everything resolved yet, because we don't. But in terms of setting the stage of what we need to do, I think it was terrific."
非营利机构--皮尤全球气候变化中心(Pew Center on Global Climate Change)的主任克劳森(Eileen Claussen)认为，无论从哪个角度来看，在与气候变暖的现象进行的抗争中，2007年都是非常关键的一年。她说：“在过去一年里发生了一些重大变化。这并不意味着一切问题都解决了，因为我们并没有解决所有的问题。但是，从为我们所需要的作好准备这方面来看，我认为成果显著。”
Claussen says 2007 got off to a good start with the announcement of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, "which was an alliance of 27 corporations and six non-profit organizations in the U.S. saying we need a mandatory national program with the goal of reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 60-to-80 percent by 2050."
克劳森说，2007年新年伊始，美国方面就宣布建立“气候行动夥伴”计划，这是个良好的开端。她说：“‘气候行动夥伴’计划是由美国的27家公司和非营利机构组成的。这个行动表明，需要在全国范围内设立一个强制性的项目，目标是在2050年之前，把美国的温室气体排放量降低60%到80%。”
That commitment to scale back from high 1990 emission levels -- the marker for such improvements -- was re-affirmed in early December in Bali at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change where members of the alliance upped the ante, pledging to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 90 percent by 2050.
把温室气体的排放量从1990年代的规模降下来这个承诺，在12月印尼巴厘岛举行的联合国气候变化会议上重新得到了认可。在这次会议上，与会各方提出了更高的要求，保证要在2050年之前，把温室气体的排放量降低90%。
Claussen says that this is a significant step because industry had formerly rejected the binding commitments associated with the Kyoto Protocol, the global climate change agreement. "Many, many companies have already set voluntary emission reduction goals, which means that they had to inventory their emissions and figure out what they could do," according to Claussen. "Companies that develop technology are looking ahead to a carbon-constrained world and the kinds of technologies that will be demanded by that world. And so there are companies beginning to invest significant amounts of money to prepare for what they see as inevitable."
克劳森女士说，这是很重要的一步，因为企业方面在这之前拒绝作出与涉及全球气候变化的京都议定书有关的有约束力的承诺。她说：“很多公司和企业已经主动设立了减少温室气体排放量的目标，这意味着这些公司都要清查它们排放的温室气体总量，然后找出应对的办法。那些从事科技研发的公司和企业也在考虑如何在一个碳排放受到限制的世界里，研发出全球所需要的技术。因此，一些公司开始把大量资金投入这个领域，因为他们意识到，这是大势所趋。”
Claussen says in the absence of a substantive commitment by the federal government, U.S. states have stepped in to pick up the slack. "In February, we had a Western Climate Initiative, which includes seven states and two Canadian provinces. We've got work that is ongoing in the northeast and the mid-Atlantic and then in I think really big news we had a mid-Western regional gas accord with six U.S. States and one Canadian province," says Claussen.
克劳森女士说，在美国的联邦政府还没有对此作出实质性承诺之前，美国的各州已经介入，抓紧了这个松懈的环节。她说：“2月的时候，西部地区提出了一个气候行动计划。这项计划包括美国的7个州和加拿大的2个省。美国东北部和东部沿海地区也展开了这方面的工作。尤其令人可喜的是，在中西部地区，美国的6个州和加拿大的一个省签署了一项天然气协议。”
If that Midwest alliance were a country, it would be the fifth largest carbon producer in the world behind the United States, China, India and Russia. The Midwest pact sets ambitious goals to cut global warming gases. It mandates increased energy efficiency, greater use of biofuels and requires that coal-fired power plants capture and store carbon emissions. And by 2030 the region hopes to generate 30 percent of its power from renewable sources.
如果把中西部地区作为一个国家来看的话，那么它将是世界上仅次于美国、中国、印度和俄罗斯的第5大碳排放地区。中西部地区签署的这项协议为减少全球温室气体排放设立了宏伟的目标。协议要求提高能源效率，更多地使用生物燃料，并要求燃媒的发电厂截获和储存好排出的二氧化碳。这个地区希望在2030年之前，他们所需要的能源有30%来自可再生的能源机制。
Wisconsin governor Jim Doyle says the regional agreement charts a new energy direction for his state. "We have an opportunity here in Wisconsin to build a large part of our economy around energy independence. We have great agricultural production. The northern half of our state is vast forest in which we are discovering a great deal about biomass that can be used as energy. Forests, agriculture and research: We have them all, and we want to make sure that we are a major part of the growing economy," says Doyle.
威斯康辛州的州长吉姆.多伊尔(Jim Doyle)表示，这一区域性协议为威斯康辛州的能源领域开拓了新的方向。他说：“我们现在有一个机会，围绕能源独立来建设我们州很大一部分经济产业。我们的农业生产规模很大，威斯康辛州北部有广阔的森林，在那里我们发现了很多可以作为能源来利用的生物资源。森林、农业和科研，我们都有，我们要确保威斯康辛州成为不断扩展的美国经济的重要组成部分。”
The same message came from a meeting in Lisbon, Portugal, in late October where a coalition of European countries, New Zealand, and several U.S. States and Canadian provinces joined to form the International Carbon Action Partnership.
10月底在葡萄牙首都里斯本召开的一个国际会议发出了同样的信息。参加这次会议的有欧洲国家、新西兰、美国的几个州，以及加拿大的一些省份，他们在会上制定了“国际碳行动夥伴计划”。
Premier Gordon Campbell from British Columbia and New Jersey governor Jon Corzine were in Portugal to sign the pact. They say the agreement gives them another forum in which to coordinate market action on carbon. "We build consistency and stability over the long term for this [carbon trading] and it's a critical component of us reducing carbon emissions and greenhouse gases globally," says Campbell. "And maybe more importantly from my point of view set a framework for the [national] debate on the establishment of a global trading system on carbon," says Corzine.
加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚省(British Columbia)省长戈登.坎贝尔(Gordon Campbell)、美国新泽西州州长乔恩.科尔津(Jon Corzine)都赶到葡萄牙签署这项协议。他们表示，这项协议为协调碳排放的市场行动提供了一个讨论的场所。戈登.坎布尔说：“碳气体排放的交易要通过长期的行动来稳固发展，这是在全球范围内降低二氧化碳和温室气体排放的一个重要组成部分。新泽西州的州长科尔津说：“在我看来，建立一个组织结构，就成立全球性碳贸易系统展开辩论，可能更为重要。””
That debate is heating up as the U.S. Congress considers a bill to cap carbon emissions. The White House has openly opposed such a mandate, favoring voluntary emissions reductions instead.
在美国国会考虑出台一项法案为碳排放设置上限之际，有关这个问题的辩论正日趋激烈。白宫方面一直公开反对这样的强制性措施，支持有关各方自愿降低碳排放量。
Eileen Claussen with the Pew Center for Global Climate Change is confident that that Congress will pass a law that would require the U.S. -- a major global polluter -- to reduce what it emits. "I would like to see a bill passed in the U.S. Congress in 2008 and getting the president to sign it is a challenge also."
皮尤全球气候变化中心的克劳森女士对国会通过要求美国降低温室气体排放量的法案表示有信心。美国目前是引起全球污染的一个主要国家。
Claussen says the law may have to wait for the inauguration of a new U.S. president in January, 2009. She believes that change of administration will put the U.S. into a better bargaining position as nations try to hammer out a successor to the Kyoto Protocol before it expires in 2012. "The notion of commitments for all the major emitting countries either has to be explicitly on the table, which I think is a huge challenge or at least not precluded from negotiations that will start sometime after Bali."
她说：“我希望国会能在2008年通过这项法案，但是如何让总统来签署这项法案，也是一个挑战。”克劳森女士说，这项法案恐怕要等到新任美国总统在2009年1月上任之后才能签署。她认为，新任总统入主白宫将使美国在与其他国家磋商如何制定京都议定书之后的全球性协议方面处于有利地位。她说：“或是公开讨论所有排放温室气体的主要国家都要作出承诺，我认为这很难做到，或是至少在巴厘岛的会议结束后不久展开的谈判中不排除讨论这个问题。”
Eileen Claussen says two stories sum up the encouraging trends in 2007. First, 2007 was a year in which a U.S. state rejected a permit for a coal-fired power plant based on climate change. And, secondly it was the year when 80 heads of state met in a U.N special session and acknowledged the urgent need to act on climate change. Claussen says these are powerful signs that the political will exists to work toward a healthier and more sustainable planet.
克劳森女士说，2007年令人鼓舞的趋势可以从两个例子中看出来。首先，美国的一个州在2007年出于气候变暖的考虑拒绝给一个燃媒发电厂颁发许可证；第二，这一年世界上80个国家的首脑在联合国的一个特别会议上承认急需在气候变暖问题上采取行动。克劳森女士认为，这些都充分显示，有关各方都有政治意愿，建设一个更加有利健康、更富有可持续发展特色的国际社会。 |