150 nations agree to future climate talks (AP) Updated: 2005-12-10 20:47
More than 150 nations agreed Saturday to launch formal talks on mandatory
post-2012 reductions in greenhouse gases �� talks that will exclude an unwilling
United States.
For its part the Bush administration, which rejects the emissions cutbacks of
the current Kyoto Protocol, accepted only a watered-down proposal to enter an
exploratory global "dialogue" on future steps to combat climate change. That
proposal specifically rules out "negotiations leading to new commitments."
The parallel tracks represented a mixed result for the pivotal two-week U.N.
conference on global warming, doing little to close the climate gap between
Washington on one side, and Europe, Japan and other supporters of the Kyoto
Protocol on the other.
"These countries are willing to take the leadership," Swiss delegate Bruno
Oberle said of the Kyoto nations. "But they are not able to solve the problem.
We need the support of the United States �� but also of the big emerging
countries," a reference to China and other poorer industrializing nations not
obligated under Kyoto.
But the Canadian conference president, Environment Minister Stephane Dion,
said the decisions taken here amounted to "a map for the future, the Montreal
Action Plan, the MAP."
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton listens to
Prime Minister Paul Martin respond to a question during a news conference
at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Montreal, Friday Dec.
9, 2005. [AP] | The Montreal meeting was the first of the annual climate conferences since
the Kyoto Protocol took effect last February, mandating specific cutbacks in
emissions of carbon dioxide and five other gases by 2012 in 35 industrialized
countries.
A broad scientific consensus agrees that these gases accumulating in the
atmosphere, byproducts of automobile engines, power plants and other fossil
fuel-burning industries, contributed significantly to the past century's global
temperature rise of 1 degree Fahrenheit.
Continued warming is melting glaciers worldwide, shrinking the Arctic ice cap
and heating up the oceans, raising sea levels, scientists say. They predict
major climate disruptions in coming decades.
Former President Clinton, a Kyoto supporter, appeared at the Montreal meeting
on its final day and urged nations to unite to confront the threat.
The United States is the world's biggest greenhouse-gas emitter, and
Clinton's vice president, Al Gore, was instrumental in negotiating the treaty
protocol initialed in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan �� a pact the Senate subsequently
refused to ratify.
When Bush rejected Kyoto outright after taking office in 2001, he said its
mandatory energy cuts would harm the U.S. economy, and he complained that major
developing countries were not covered.
The protocol's language required its 157 member nations at this point to
begin talks on deeper emissions cuts for the next phase, which begins when Kyoto
expires in 2012.
In days of tough negotiation, the Kyoto nations settled on a plan whereby a
working group would begin developing post-2012 proposals. The agreement set no
deadline for completing that work, except to say it should be done early enough
to ensure that no gap develops after 2012.
That would guarantee an uninterrupted future for the burgeoning international
"carbon market," in which carbon reductions achieved by one company can be sold
to another to help it meet its target.
At the same time, the host Canadians tried to draw in the Americans on the
parallel track, under the umbrella 1992 U.N. climate treaty, which does not
mandate emissions cuts or other actions on global warming. As the days wore on,
the language offered the Americans, and finally accepted by them, weakened.
"It's clear the Bush administration isn't willing to accept its
responsibility," climate expert Bill Hare of Greenpeace International said of
the continued U.S. rejection of global negotiations and emissions controls.
Explaining that stand earlier in the week, U.S. delegation chief Paula
Dobriansky said the Americans "believe firmly that negotiations will not reap
progress, as indicated, because there are differing perspectives."
Instead, the U.S. delegation said it favors voluntary efforts and bilateral
and regional arrangements to tackle climate change. It repeatedly pointed to
U.S. government spending on research and development of energy-saving
technologies as a demonstration of U.S. efforts on climate.
In a news conference after his speech, Clinton suggested the Europeans and
others not try to force Kyoto-style "targets" on Washington, but look for
agreement on specific energy-saving projects.
"If we just keep working with the administration, we'll find some specific
things we can do that are consistent with the targets," he said, but "without
embracing the targets."
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