BERLIN
02-Jun-07
LEADERS of the G8 industrialised nations have welcomed a US proposal for capping greenhouse gas emissions as an important, if largely symbolic, step forward in the global fight against climate change.
Britain, Germany and Japan applauded, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, the initiative unveiled by President George W Bush last Thursday, as questions remained about the substantive details.
European press reaction was mixed, with some newspapers echoing the criticism of environmental groups that Bush, by seeking to create a new global framework for reducing carbon emissions, was seeking to circumvent efforts to forge a tougher international agreement at the Group of Eight (G8) summit.
"Bush kills off hopes for G8 climate change plan," read the front page headline in The Guardian.
In his speech last Thursday, Bush called on the world's leading economies to join the United States in agreeing a global target to reduce carbon emissions.
Although he gave no indication of the size of emission cuts that Washington might commit to, the fact that the president was reversing long-standing US opposition to joining a global deal was hailed by other G8 leaders as a major development.
"This is what we have been working for," said British Prime Minister Tony Blair who is currently on a tour of Africa.
"Obviously it's a big step forward and it sets the right framework for next week's meeting," he said, adding that any new agreement for when the Kyoto protocol expires in 2012 needed to involve China, India and the United States.
The United States, the world's leading polluter, did not sign the Kyoto accords to cut greenhouse gas emissions thought to contribute to global warming.
Blair said the main significance of Bush's proposal was Washington's formal recognition of climate change as "a real problem" that required US leadership in the search for a solution.
"That's a huge step forward from where we were a few years ago," he said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the initiative "an important statement" but gave no sign of backing off German efforts to secure a binding G8 agreement _ over fierce US opposition _ on limiting carbon emissions.
Merkel said the G8 leaders meeting at next week's summit in Heiligendamm, Germany would have to make great efforts to find a common commitment.
"As far as the concrete formulations for Heiligendamm are concerned, we will have to make significantly more progress," she added.
Japan welcomed what it described as a sign of Washington's "strong will" to address climate change.
"I believe that the United States is finally getting serious in dealing with global warming," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was quoted as saying by Kyodo News.
Some environmental groups saw Bush's initiative as a cynical ploy to excuse the United States from tougher emission reduction agreements currently under discussion.
Bush's proposal "can only be seen as a transparent attempt to derail negotiations that are already going on in the G8 and the United Nations", Friends of the Earth's Director, Tony Juniper, said in a statement.
"If the president wishes to be taken seriously on the subject of climate change he needs to arrive in Germany next week with a willingness to negotiate rather than a determination to wreck talks which are already going on," Juniper said.
AFP
No comments:
Post a Comment