'Action now' says climate talks chairman

Bringing the US to adhere to the Kyoto protocol will not happen in the "distant political future", according to Michael Zammit Cutajar, the 56-year-old Maltese climate expert who has just been appointed to overcome deep policy splits on global warming.

"One day, however, the US will have a room in the house which accommodates others too," Mr Zammit Cutajar said.

In his first comments to The Times since his appointment, he warned that the world was facing a "creeping catastrophe".

A UN conference on Wednesday picked Mr Zammit Cutajar to draw together all the players to work towards a common goal and extend the UN's Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012.

Kyoto obliges almost 40 industrialised nations to cut emissions of heat-trapping gases by at least five per cent below 1990 levels by 2008-12. The US pulled out in 2001, branding Kyoto an economic straitjacket and saying it wrongly left out developing nations.

Mr Zammit Cutajar will lead work on how to confront rising temperatures widely blamed by scientists on fossil fuel emissions that could spur more heat waves, floods and droughts and drive up sea levels by almost a metre by 2100.

Global warming is a slow moving problem but the world needs to take action now to save our successors from massive problems, Mr Zammit Cutajar said. The melting of the Greenland icecap is accelerating and, were it to disappear, sea levels could rise by up to seven metres.

"If you had to think of the number of people that live in low lying areas close to the sea, that's pretty alarming," he said.

The countries that are currently bound by the Kyoto agreement count for 30 per cent of global emissions.

"If they are making an effort, it's evident that they want to know what the other 70 per cent are doing," he said.

Mr Zammit Cutajar spoke of the need to avoid years of wrangling, even though it will be a problem to get the different sides to agree on a common position.

The US is the world's largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions with the average US citizen emitting 10 times more carbon monoxide than the average Chinese or Indian.

"Without the US, you can't reduce the problem," Mr Zammit Cutajar said.

The problem lies at federal level, since states such as California and some North Eastern states have actually taken initiatives and set out targets to reduce emissions.

"This is the intrinsic difficulty of getting political backing - governments normally have a five-year vision, even businesses look ahead by more than that."

Still, he underlined the need for responsibility, even in a small country like Malta.

"Look for alternative means of energy. Consumers need to be responsible and look for ways of cutting emissions and in the meantime find ways of cutting costs. The education authorities also have a major part to play."

The Environment Ministry said Mr Zammit Cutajar's appointment is an important and prestigious achievement for Malta's reputation in international environmental fora.

Mr Zammit Cutajar was recently appointed Ambassador for International Environmental Affairs by the government, which also supported him in accepting the EU's request to be its candidate for this chair. "Mr Zammit Cutajar enjoys a very high standing in environmental circles worldwide and his expertise made important inroads for Malta," Environment Minister George Pullicino said.

"His contribution is valued by the world's top environment policy-makers. We were aware that because of the importance of further commitments under the Kyoto protocol, there were long discussions between developed and developing countries over who will chair the talks and who should chair them, so the decision to have Mr Zammit Cutajar head the talks came as very good news."