The head of the UN's panel of climate-change experts said today he was encouraged by climate pledges at last week's G8 summit but warned commitments still fell short of what was required by science.
Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), told AFP the outcome of the L'Aquila talks was "a bit of a dichotomy."
"On the one hand, the G8 leaders have agreed to this so-called aspirational goal of reducing (greenhouse-gas) emissions by 80 per cent up to 2050, and seeing that temperature increase doesn't exceed two degrees (Celsius)," he said.
"But on the other hand, they haven't take into account the IPCC's assessment that if we want to limit the increase to two degrees, we have to ensure that emissions peak no later than 2015.
"If that's the case, they should have clearly come up with what they are going to do about reducing emissions in the immediate, short run. They haven't done that. I see that as a gap that hasn't been filled."
The UN's 192-nation Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is hosting talks aimed at forging a new global pact for tackling global warming and its impacts.
The treaty would take effect after 2012, ratcheting up curbs on greenhouse-gas pollution set down in the landmark Kyoto Protocol.
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