Inter Press Service
Saturday 29 September 2007
Brooklin, Canada - After years of denial, the U.S. White House-sponsored summit on climate change ended Friday with President George W. Bush admitting that global warming was real and humans were responsible and asking for heads of state to join him at yet another summit next year (when his presidency ends).
It's doubtful if anyone of consequence will attend that future gab-fest since President Bush continues to push voluntary cuts to greenhouse gas emissions when the rest of the world, including much of the business sector, has already said that approach simply doesn't work.
"President Bush has so little credibility on climate change," said Chris Flavin, president of the Worldwatch Institute, a U.S.-based environmental group.
Only mid-level officials from 16 countries, the European Union and the United Nations participated in the meeting Thursday and Friday.
"There is a strong international consensus on the need for mandatory emissions cuts," Flavin told IPS.
The Bush administration has been under enormous pressure from the international community, the U.S. public, some of the U.S. business sector and from within the conservative Republican Party itself to do something on climate change, said Elliot Diringer, director of International Strategies at the Pew Centre on Global Climate Change, an environmental group working with the corporate sector.
Many businesses actually want a mandatory cap and trade system for carbon and clear rules about mandatory reductions, Diringer said in an interview.
"The White House summit was simply a change in tactics, not a change of heart," he said.
Some of those tactics included public expressions of support by the head of the U.N. process for dealing with climate change, which gave birth to the Kyoto Protocol. Others said the White House summit was an attempt to divert U.S. public and media attention away from the U.N. climate summit held earlier in the week, where more than 80 heads of state endorsed the concept of an international post-Kyoto agreement to cap emissions.
"It is an attempt to derail the U.N. process (on climate change)," said Lo Sze Ping, campaign director for Greenpeace China, about the Washington summit.
"The U.S. and Australia should stop finger-pointing and take action," Sze Ping said at a press conference in New York City, noting that China has automobile fuel efficiency requirements, a commitment to 15 percent renewable energy by 2020, and other concrete emissions reduction initiatives that far surpass U.S. and Australian efforts.
The U.N. summit this week was intended to create a higher profile and momentum for the upcoming U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) conference in Bali, Indonesia in December. The UNFCCC is an international treaty that arose from the Rio Earth Summit to reduce the emissions of GHGs "to prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference in the climate system". Virtually all countries joined by 1994, including the United States.
The UNFCCC set no mandatory emissions limits, but a later provision of the treaty, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, did for developed countries. The U.S., Australia and a few other countries eventually refused to ratify the agreement. Others like Canada and Japan signed on but have said they will not meet their obligations to reduce their emissions of GHGs by 5.2 percent between 2008 and 2012.
Developing countries like China and India did not have to make reductions during this "first commitment period" but are expected to in the second commitment period. The Bali conference is about this second commitment period and will be a heated negotiation about how steep the next round of emissions reductions will be for both the developed and developing world countries.
Diringer worries that President Bush's call for a "leaders' summit" in 2008 will be used as an excuse by some to delay any serious negotiations in Bali, noting that decisions will be made by consensus there.
"It's likely Washington is trying to delay the process," he said.
It's also possible that the U.S. is trying to drive a wedge between the European Union, which wants a 50 percent cut in global emissions by 2050, and China and India, said Flavin.
"It's important that the White House doesn't try to create a separate process," said Hans Verolme, director of the WWF's Global Climate Change Programme.
It's also clear that this administration will not agree to any limits in Bali despite the ample evidence that carbon regulation is very good for the economy, Verolme said in an interview.
"Everyone is getting ready to move as soon as there's a change in the White House," he said.
Europeans Angry After Bush Climate Speech "Charade"
By Ewen MacAskill
The Guardian UK
Saturday 29 September 2007
US isolated as China and India refuse to back policy. President claims he can lead world on emissions.
Washington - George Bush was castigated by European diplomats and found himself isolated yesterday after a special conference on climate change ended without any progress.
European ministers, diplomats and officials attending the Washington conference were scathing, particularly in private, over Mr Bush's failure once again to commit to binding action on climate change.
Although the US and Britain have been at odds over the environment since the early days of the Bush administration, the gap has never been as wide as yesterday.
Britain and almost all other European countries, including Germany and France, want mandatory targets for reducing greenhouse emissions. Mr Bush, while talking yesterday about a "new approach" and "a historic undertaking", remains totally opposed.
The conference, attended by more than 20 countries, including China, India, Britain, France and Germany, broke up with the US isolated, according to non-Americans attending. One of those present said even China and India, two of the biggest polluters, accepted that the voluntary approach proposed by the US was untenable and favoured binding measures, even though they disagreed with the Europeans over how this would be achieved.
A senior European diplomat attending the conference, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the meeting confirmed European suspicions that it had been intended by Mr Bush as a spoiler for a major UN conference on climate change in Bali in December.
"It was a total charade and has been exposed as a charade," the diplomat said. "I have never heard a more humiliating speech by a major leader. He [Mr Bush] was trying to present himself as a leader while showing no sign of leadership. It was a total failure."
John Ashton, Britain's special envoy on climate change, who attended the conference, said: "It is striking here how isolated the US has become on this issue. There is no support among the industrialised countries for the proposition that we should proceed on the basis of voluntary commitments.
"The most inspiring example of leadership this week was the speech on Monday at the UN by Arnold Schwarzenegger."
The governor of California is already putting into action in the state policies to reduce carbon emissions.
Other European governments expressed similar sentiments.
Although many of those attending had predicted the conference would break up without significant agreement, there had been hopes that Mr Bush, in search of a legacy, might produce a surprise. Instead, he stuck to his previous position, shunning mandatory caps in favour of clean coal, nuclear power and developing clean energy technology.
In contrast with the early years of his presidency when he expressed scepticism about climate change and whether humans were responsible, Mr Bush acknowledged yesterday "energy security and climate change are two of the great challenges of our time. The United States takes these challenges seriously."
He added: "Our guiding principle is clear: we must lead the world to produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions, and we must do it in a way that does not undermine economic growth or prevent nations from delivering greater prosperity."
Instead of mandatory caps, he emphasised a need to shift to clean coal, nuclear energy and new clean technology. He also proposed a new international technology fund but did not say how much the US would put into it. He reiterated a need for Americans to shift from oil to ethanol for their cars. "We're working to develop next-generation plug-in hybrids that will be able to travel nearly 40 miles without using a drop of gasoline. And your automobile doesn't have to look like a golf cart," he said.
Elizabeth Bast, of Friends of the Earth, described the conference as a diversion. "We have heard it before. He put a huge emphasis on technology and does not speak to binding targets, and there is a great emphasis on coal and nuclear energy," she said.
Many US states have embarked on their own programmes, with California leading the way. The governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has signed a law requiring a 25% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, with penalties for industries that do not comply. California's three biggest utilities must produce at least 20% of their electricity using renewable sources by 2010.
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