An Italian minister has proposed launching a global-warming Marshall Plan following Friday's release of a UN report calling for sweeping cuts in greenhouse gases.
"A worldwide 'Marshall Plan' is needed for the ecological transformation of the economy," said Environment Minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, referring to the US-financed aid package that helped Europe onto its feet after World War II.
"There can be no more excuses after the publication of the UN report.
"All states must abandon positions based on outdated development models with no future and sign up to binding agreements to halve carbon dioxide emissions by 2050".
The report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - approved Friday in Bangkok - said carbon dioxide emissions must come down by 50-85% by 2050 to keep global temperature rises under two degrees Celsius.
This would avert disastrous consequences for humankind and the planet as a whole, it said.
The IPCC, which includes experts from over 130 countries, also stressed that technological advances mean the cost of controlling climate change in this way could be as low as 0.12% of global Gross Domestic Product if swift action is taken.
"All the governments have to do is set aside a little part of what they spend on arms, which has increased in recent years, to reach the annual quota of 0.1% of GDP needed for climate-change interventions," said Pecoraro Scanio, the leader of the Green party.
ENVIRONMENTALISTS URGE POLITICIANS TO TAKE ACTION.
Italy's environmental groups backed the IPCC report and called on politicians to put it into practice at once.
"It is time to get down to work," said Michele Candotti, the secretary general of WWF Italia.
"The IPCC have drafted the road map of how to make the planet safe, now it's the politicians' turn.
"We can stop climate change before it's too late, all we have to do is work for this to come about".
Francesco Tedesco of Greenpeace Italia agreed.
"The report confirms what we have always said. The longer we delay action, the greater the threat of global warming. The moment to act is now," he said.
"Legally binding commitments must be agreed on by 2009 in order to give the Kyoto Protocol a future and set emission cuts that are much more stringent than the current ones".
Recent IPCC reports have blamed climate change on human emissions of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels and predicted that this will cause widespread desertification, droughts, hunger and rising seas, if unchecked.
In March the Italian government unveiled a new package aimed at encouraging energy efficiency and the use of renewable sources like wind and solar power.
But environmentalists say much more needs to be done.
"Reducing consumption of oil and coal, energy saving and greater use of clean energies are the road to take to stop climate change and its dramatic consequences," said Roberto Della Seta, the president of the Legambiente association.
"Italy is behind almost all the other European countries on this front. It is time to go from sounding the alarm to taking action".
Pecoraro Scanio vowed to badger his fellow ministers into doing so.
"Italy must do more and more to cut emissions by investing in renewable sources, energy efficiency, sustainable transport and technological innovation," he said.
"In the last budget we obtained the first results in this direction, but the next budget must be the greenest in our country's history".
