A sharp rise in oil-guzzling transport demands and a reluctance to replace traditional electricity plants threaten to impede the European Union from meeting its targets for emissions reductions under the Kyoto Protocol, according to International Energy Agency Chief Economist Fatih Birol.  Even if the EU increases use of renewable power sources such as wind and solar energy to 30 percent by 2030, greenhouse gas emission cuts will still fall short of climate change targets, the agency predicted.

Under the Kyoto Protocol, the EU must reduce emissions blamed for global warming by 8 percent of 1990 levels by 2012.  Around 3,080 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, the main gas the EU aims to cut, were emitted in 1990.  Without any policy changes, CO₂ emissions are projected to rise to 3,829 million metric tons in 2030.  If the EU adopts the new policies on renewable energy, emissions in 2030 would be 19 percent less than the projection but still up from the 1990 level.

"If governments want to do something, they have to act not only radically but also as soon as possible," Birol said, urging the EU to dramatically increase reliance on renewable power.

The European Commission has proposed increasing renewable power sources, improving energy efficiency in buildings, and establishing maximum industry levels for CO₂ output.

By implementing these plans, European Commission environment spokeswoman Pia Ahrenkilde-Hansen said, "We still believe that the EU can meet its target" (Robin Pomeroy, Reuters/PlanetArk, Oct. 4).

The government of Tuvalu has hired an attorney in Washington to consider whether the Pacific island nation should sue the U.S. government or American oil companies, coal mining firms and auto makers for global warming that threatens to wash away its two coral islands and seven coral atolls.

If the rise of ocean levels accelerates from its current annual increase of 1 milliliter, an outer coral reef that protects Tuvalu from the sea will not be able to grow fast enough to prevent the nation, whose highest point in its 10 square miles of land is 16 feet above sea level, from being completely flooded.

"We don't have hills or mountains.  All we have is coconut trees," said Tuvalu's former Prime Minister Koloa Talake.  "If the industrial countries don't consider our crisis, our only alternative is to climb up in the coconut trees when the tide rises."

Tuvalu decided to take legal action after U.S. President George W. Bush pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol last year because of concerns that the air pollution cuts might burden companies and, in turn, harm the U.S. economy. 

The United States has also been pressured to reduce air pollution by other low-lying island nations, including the Pacific nations of Kiribati, the Marshall Islands and Nauru, and the Indian Ocean's Maldives.

The Tuvalu government seeks a refugee agreement to find homes for its population of 10,400 in the event of a flood.  Australia turned down Tuvalu's request to accept the entire population, and New Zealand has agreed to accept 75 Tuvaluans a year (Richard Paddock, Los Angeles Times, Oct. 4).