Italy vows to take lead in Kyoto Protocol

ROME, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Italy plans to lead the fight against global warming by taking stiff action against Italian polluters, the country's environment minister said Wednesday.

Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio said he would make the pledge at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, next week, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.

He said Italy would be a more credible change agent if it gets its act together at home.

The Kyoto Protocol to the U.N. framework convention on climate change called on Italy to cut emissions by 6.5 percent from 1990 levels. But emissions have actually gone up by 12 percent, ANSA said.

Pecoraro Scanio appealed to other countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the light of the Oct. 30 publication of the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change.

The report -- one of the first government-sponsored reports on global warming conducted by an economist rather than an atmospheric scientist -- predicted severe economic and social consequences if action against greenhouse gases is not taken.