NUSA DUA—Industrial-nation targets under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol are becoming “less and less relevant” as emissions rise before the treaty’s compliance period in the five years through 2012, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said.

                Nations need to set laws that encourage use of energy more efficiently and make use of technology that captures carbon dioxide and stores it underground, Nobuo Tanaka, executive director of the IEA, told reporters Tuesday in a meeting in Nusa Dua, Indonesia. “We have to move ahead much faster.”

                Carbon-dioxide output from fuel combustion could peak around 2025, with China probably overtaking the US this year as the world’s biggest emitter, the IEA said in its World Energy Outlook 2007 report last month.

                That assumes lawmakers adopt new, costly laws to curb greenhouse gases, embrace wind farms and nuclear reactors, and require household appliances to be more efficient, Tanaka said Tuesday. National targets need to be much tougher than in the Kyoto Protocol, he said. “Now is the time for action.”

                Keeping temperature gains to less than 3 degrees Celsius, or at a carbon-dioxide concentration in the atmosphere of about 450 parts per million, would need “exceptionally vigorous policy action,” the IEA report said. “A later peak and less-sharp reductions in emissions would lead to higher concentrations and bigger increases in temperature.” Bloomberg

No great breakthrough in Bali

BALI, Indonesia—There were signs that no final deal on a future climate regime will be concluded in Bali talks. UN officials said the goal is merely to launch negotiations, to set an agenda on the “main building blocks” of a future agreement and to set an end date for conclusion of the negotiations.

Kyoto deal becoming irrelevant

NUSA DUA—Industrial-nation targets under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol are becoming “less and less relevant” as emissions rise before the treaty’s compliance period in the five years through 2012, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said.

BP, US Steel identified as water risks      

CHICAGO—BP Plc. and US Steel Corp.’s operations in Indiana are among the worst in the US in terms of the risk they may present to the public from water pollution caused by their plants, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Funds for climate should be increased

HONG KONG—Global spending to fund research and develop clean-energy technology aimed at curbing climate change should increase, said OPEC secretary-general Abdalla el-Badri.

Lower emissions for California firms

NEW YORK—California utilities, refineries and cement plants must cut production of gases blamed for global warming 11 percent below current levels by 2020, provisions of a state law adopted last week say.