user: Current climate pledges are not enough to stop global warming, UN says
Steam and other emissions rise from a Melbourne industrial plant. (AAP)

Pollution is still rising despite world pledges to cut carbon emissions and more action is needed to rein in climate change, a UN report says.

The Emissions Gap report is the fifth yearly analysis that examines how countries are doing and lays out the path toward keeping the average rise in global temperature below two degrees Celsius over the next century.

The report by the UN Environment Program and the World Resources Institute said the planet must aim for global carbon neutrality by mid-to-late century to head off the worst effects of climate change.

"There is still a significant gap between where emissions are going and where they need to be by 2030 if we're going to limit warming to less than 2 degrees (Celsius)," said Taryn Fransen, project director of the Open Climate Network at the World Resources Institute.

The report calls for global emissions to peak in the next 10 years before beginning to decline by 2030, as more forests are planted to absorb carbon, and more economies pursue cleaner alternatives to fossil fuels.

To avoid the devastating effects that a hotter planet may bring in terms of food shortages, job loss and storm damage, the report calls for "global carbon neutrality" - or a net zero of human-caused C02 emissions - by sometime between 2055 and 2070.

Then, global greenhouse gas emissions should be at least 50 per cent lower by 2050, said the report.

After that, total global greenhouse gas emissions - not just carbon - need to shrink to net zero sometime between 2080 and 2100.

More than 90 countries have made voluntary pledges and commitments to cut emissions.

Five countries that are party to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change - Brazil, China, the European Union 28, India and the Russian Federation - are on track to meet their pledges, the report said.

Australia, Canada, Mexico and the United States "are likely to require further action and/or purchased offsets to meet their pledges" for 2020, it said.

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The planet must aim for global carbon neutrality by mid-to-late century to head off the worst effects of climate change, a UN report says.
LADY BIRD LEARNED TO ACCEPT LYNDON'S TOMCATTING, SAYS BOOK
BY MITCHELL FINK WITH LAUREN RUBIN

Friday, May 18th 2001, 2:21AM

The Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal of 1998 came as a surprise to a lot of people, but Lady Bird Johnson was not among them. The widow of Lyndon B. Johnson was keenly aware that a President might seek out the companionship of other women, according to Kati Marton's new book, "Hidden Power:

Presidential Marriages That Shaped Our Recent History."

"If I wanted him to do without the stimulation, knowledge or assistance that other women offered him, it would, after a period, have diminished me," Lady Bird said in the book, excerpts from which run in the June/July issue of Talk magazine.

"Ultimately, she was confident of his deep love for and need of her," added Marton, who described "Bird" (LBJ's nickname for her) as

Lyndon's rock. While their bond was strong, the First Lady "understood what she called the 'help and support' of other women," said Marton.

Not only did Lady Bird manage to keep an eye on LBJ's extramarital liaisons, she even learned a thing or two from his mistresses, she said.

"I learned how to dress better from this one, to always wear lipstick from another, about art or music from another," she said.

It was well known around the White House that Johnson was a womanizer, but that fact - in those far different days - was kept hidden by the media.

"About five of us reporters were sitting around the bar of the old Driscoll Hotel in Austin on New Year's Eve 1963," said former People magazine writer Hal Wingo of an incident one month into Johnson's presidency. "Suddenly the President appeared and pulled up a chair. 'Now boys, let me tell you something. Sometimes you may see me coming out of a room in the White House with a woman. You just remember,' he said, 'that is none of your business.' We just said, 'Yes, sir,' and stuck to it pretty much. That's just the way things were then."

ROKER EXPECTS A FASTER-MOVING SYSTEM

Al Roker is having surgery.

The "Today" show weatherman will enter a New York-area hospital on June 7 and leave a day or so later with a new knee.

Roker was walking with the aid of a cane Wednesday when he and wife Deborah Roberts arrived at the West Village home of artist Jennifer Bartlett to hear a show by Wynton Marsalis and members of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.

"I had a car accident 16 years ago, and my doctor told me then I would need a new knee in 10 years," said Roker. "I managed to push for another five years, but I have to do something about it now."

Others at the event, which was being staged as a fund-raiser for the Jazz at Lincoln Center arts program, included Glenn Close, Peter Jennings, Drew and Karenna Gore Schiff, Matthew Modine and Bryant Gumbel's estranged wife, June.

As if Donald Trump didn't have enough to promote. Now he's hawking Doritos.

Maybe you've seen the ads, along with the manufacturer's coupon inserts, that depict the mogul luring potential buyers of Frito-Lay

products with the possibility of winning cash.

Speaking of cash, I heard that Trump was paid $1 million to do the ad. He wouldn't confirm the figure, though. "I did get money, but I turned it all over to charity," Trump told me this week during a Playboy party at the new Hugo Boss store on Fifth Ave. "It was a fast, easy way to make money for charity."

The whole project, he said, was quicker and easier than, say, writing a check. Since the ads all say "billionaire" next to Trump's name, I wondered why he felt a need to shill for a company that makes corn chips.

"I did it as a favor to the head of the company," said Trump. "He's a friend of mine."

Management at CNN has been put on notice by parent company AOL Time Warner that additional cuts at the cable channel are needed. The word is, there could be a new round of layoffs if execs can't figure out other ways to save money.

Omnicom Chairman John Wren, who already counts two major ad agencies, BBDO and TBWA/ Chiat/Day, as part of his stable, seems to have another ad company in his sights: the Arnell Group, which marketing guru Peter Arnell recently bought back from the publicly held firm IPG. Wren, Arnell and Interscope honcho Steve Stoute all talked about the prospect of an Omnicom-AG deal over dinner last night at Bellini.

Â Planet Hollywood used to run a very successful celebrity screening program when the theme restaurant was on W. 57th St. It has taken a while since its move to the Times Square area, but the screening room is up and running again. Last week, TV gossip Claudia Cohen used the facility for her daughter Samantha's birthday party, screening "Josie & the Pussycats." The following night, Katie Couric celebrated the birthday of her daughter Ellie with a showing of "Shrek."

Â Talk about Nero fiddling while Rome burned: As the Mets lost to the San Diego Padres on Wednesday, team co-owner Fred Wilpon was in a Shea Stadium suite tending bar for high rollers.
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assistant: T he Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal of 1998 came as a surprise to a lot of people, but Lady Bird Johnson was not among them. The widow of Lyndon B. Johnson was keenly aware that a President might seek out the companionship of other women, according to Kati Marton's new book, "Hidden Power: Presidential Marriages That Shaped Our Recent History.""If I wanted him to do without