Rich shelving CO2 cut ambitions as economies slow | Reuters

OSLO (Reuters) - Many industrialized nations are shelving ambitions for the deepest cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 as economic slowdown overshadows the fight against climate change.

About 190 countries meet for U.N. climate talks in Poznan, Poland, next week with scant mention of a deal in Vienna last year by almost all rich nations to consider cuts in emissions of 25-40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.

"That target is perhaps something that's on the back-burner for the time being," said Rajendra Pachauri, head of the U.N. Climate Panel that said last year that industrialized nations needed to make such cuts to avoid the worst of warming.
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A summit of 20 major economies about the financial crisis hosted by Bush in Washington this month barely mentioned climate change, listing it among "other challenges" alongside food security and terrorism.

Pachauri said he was not surprised. "One wouldn't expect (Bush) to talk about climate change when the house around him was crumbling," he said.