Bush offers greenhouse gases conference
By David Blair, Diplomatic Correspondent, and Richard Spencer in Beijing
President George W Bush yesterday sought to head off criticism of his policy on climate change by outlining an ambitious plan to limit carbon emissions beginning next year.
Mr Bush proposed convening a conference of the world's 15 largest polluter countries, crucially including both India and China. "America and other nations will set a long-term global goal for reducing greenhouse gases for when the Kyoto Protocol expires," he said. "To develop this goal, the United States will convene a series of meetings of nations that produce the most greenhouse gases, including nations with rapidly growing economies like India and China. "Each country would establish mid-term management targets and programmes that reflect their own mix of energy sources and future energy needs." The US has never ratified the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which sets out targets on lowering carbon emissions until 2012. Next year's proposed conference holds out the prospect of a new Kyoto framed by the countries which contribute most to the world's carbon emissions. It would also mark an astonishing volte face by the US which, under the Bush administration, has set its face firmly against international limits on emissions. Mr Bush also said that solutions to the problem of global warming would be found through the development of new technologies. "The United States is in the lead," he told a conference in Washington. "The world is on the verge of great breakthroughs that will help us become better stewards of the environment." The president urged other nations to eliminate tariffs on clean energy technologies. Tony Blair, on a visit to South Africa, hailed the announcement, saying the US was ready to be part of a global climate deal for the first time. "It's a big step forward," Mr Blair said. But there was no indication by Mr Bush of when any restraints on emissions would take effect nor the scale of any restrictions. This puts his plan at odds with the proposal by Germany to be discussed at next week's G8 summit of leading industrial nations.
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, who holds the rotating presidency of the G8, wants all countries to agree that the world's temperature should be allowed to rise by no more than two degrees Celsius by 2050. In practice, scientists believe this would require a reduction of 50 per cent in global carbon emissions, to below the 1990 level, in the same period. Mrs Merkel had hoped to reach agreement on a plan along these lines at the summit in the Baltic town of Heiligendamm. But Mr Bush's announcement effectively renders this impossible. Greenpeace denounced the president's move as a "classic spoiler" designed to repackage America's position with "new rhetoric". Friends of the Earth said that a global agreement limiting carbon emissions was the most important aim and Mr Bush remained the prime obstacle to achieving this. Mrs Merkel put a brave face on the president's announcement, saying that it provided her with some "common ground" with America. Mr Bush's European allies will point to his acceptance of any cuts in emissions and of the proposition that climate change is a genuine problem as signs of progress. But China and India have also combined to undermine the chances of the G8 summit producing a deal on climate change. Officials in Beijing said China would oppose any legal limit on emissions. They insisted that the world's most populous country was still too undeveloped to put the fight against climate change ahead of expanding its economy. "China as a country is vulnerable to the negative impact of climate change," said one senior official with the national development and reform commission, the state planning body. "But climate change is the result of the 200-year-long industrialisation of developed countries." He said a mandatory cap would not be "fair". "China cannot accept that," he said. Last week, India also said it would not accept emission caps. As a developing country, China was not expected to set targets for the reduction of greenhouse gases by the Kyoto agreement, which it ratified. But it has been galvanised to defend its strategy of putting fast economic growth before international commitments on pollution by the International Energy Agency, which suggested it could overtake the US as the world's leading emitter of greenhouse gases as early as this year. It has also been frightened by studies showing the effects of global warming on China itself, including an upsurge in typhoons and the melting of Tibet's glaciers. Mr Blair believes that China's position is central to changing America's stance on climate change. Speaking at the University of South Africa, the Prime Minister said that one "reality" of US politics should be faced. "Whoever is in office there will not agree to a climate change deal which doesn't have China part of it," he said. |
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