By Stevenson Swanson
    The Chicago Tribune

    Tuesday 12 February 2008

Branson, Bloomberg bring ideas for action to panel's green goals.

    New York - Invoking symbols as varied as the Brooklyn Bridge and the Allied war effort in World War II, two billionaires helped open a United Nations climate change meeting Monday aimed at promoting global efforts by governments and businesses to slow the gradual warming of the atmosphere.

    Among the ideas proposed was the need for a "war room" to coordinate actions against warming and replacing New York City's use of hardwoods with plastics and other materials.

    UN officials hope the two-day debate will build on the results of a December conference in Bali, where nearly 190 nations agreed that by the end of 2009 they would come up with a new plan to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases that scientists say are trapping heat and changing the Earth's climate.

    "If the year 2007 was the year when climate change rose to the top of the global agenda, 2008 is the time we must take concerted action," said UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon.

    Ban said an estimated $500 billion a year in "green" investments such as alternative fuels is necessary to reduce levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

    To prevent rising sea levels, drought, species extinctions and other consequences of rising temperatures, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said greenhouse gas emissions should be cut by 25 percent to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.

    Richard Branson, the head of Britain's Virgin Group, called for the creation of a "war room" to coordinate the work of scientists, engineers, civic groups and government agencies to come up with solutions. He likened the effort that is needed to slow global warming to the intensive Allied research projects in World War II that resulted in such innovations as radar, sophisticated code-breaking techniques and the atomic bomb.

    "There is no coordination of ideas" currently, Branson said at a news conference. "In a war situation, you literally have a war room, and we have a crisis that is bigger than World War I and II combined."

    Branson, who has offered a $25 million prize for an invention to remove carbon dioxide from the environment, urged the 20 richest nations to match his offer. That would up the incentive to $525 million, which he said would be the largest scientific prize in history.

    New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire founder of the media company that bears his name, said slowing or reversing global warming would require dramatically stepped-up action by the U.S., the largest emitter of greenhouse gases.

    To achieve "real and binding" emissions reductions, Bloomberg favors a mandatory cut in carbon dioxide emissions coupled with a carbon tax, measures the Bush administration opposes.

    In an address to the UN meeting, Bloomberg reviewed the steps that New York City is taking to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, such as converting the taxi fleet to hybrid vehicles, and announced that the city would cut its use of tropical hardwoods by 20 percent a year.

    Cutting down tropical forests reduces the ability of the earth's ecosystem to absorb carbon dioxide, which trees convert into oxygen.

    Tropical woods are prized for their durability. That has led to their use in pilings at the docks used by Staten Island ferries, and in the 3,500-foot boardwalk that pedestrians use to cross the Brooklyn Bridge.

    To take the place of tropical wood, Bloomberg said, the city would use recycled plastic lumber, domestic hardwoods, concrete and other substitutes.

    The mayor is disappointed that presidential candidates have not made global warming an issue in the presidential campaign.

    "Candidates on both sides of the aisle should be talking about it more," he said, while acknowledging that it is a difficult subject for a political campaign. "It is complex, and it requires investment now that will yield benefits down the road."

    The climate-change meeting continues Tuesday with speeches by representatives of more than 100 countries, including the U.S.