United States: The chief US climate negotiator yesterday defended Washington's stand against compulsory caps on global-warming emissions, and said it was unlikely to change during George W Bush's presidency.
At the opening of a two-week UN treaty conference on climate change in Nairobi, Kenya, Harlan Watson also told reporters the US was voluntarily doing better at restraining the growth of gas emissions than some countries committed to reductions under the Kyoto Protocol. "With few exceptions, you're seeing those emissions rise again," Mr Watson said of countries bound by Kyoto.
Developing nations, the EU, environmentalists and others are urging Washington to sign on to obligatory cuts after 2012 - when Kyoto expires - in emissions of heat-trapping gases blamed by scientists for global warming.
"The international community will need to a take much more ambitious action after 2012," EU environment commissioner Stavros Dimas said in a statement. What is needed, he said, is "an international consensus", meaning a controls regime that includes the US.
"There is a need for a common commitment," Kenyan environment minister Kivutha Kibwana told the conference, which elected him to a one-year presidency of the body governing the 1992 UN treaty on climate change.
The 1997 Kyoto accord, an annex to that treaty, requires 35 industrialised countries to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 5 per cent below 1990 levels by 2012.
In Nairobi, the Kyoto countries will continue talks on what kind of emissions targets and timetables should follow 2012. But many, before committing, are waiting to see whether the US, accounting for 21 per cent of the world's greenhouse gases, will submit to a mandatory regime of cutbacks. Mr Watson's words seemed to rule that out for the next two years.
He was asked at a news conference whether reported pressure from British prime minister Tony Blair might have led to a change of attitude in the Bush administration toward Kyoto-style controls.
"I certainly got no indication that there's any change in our position," he replied, "nor is there likely to be during this presidency." Mr Watson cited recent UN figures showing that, by one measure, the US is doing better on greenhouse gases than some countries. That report showed that growth in US emissions in 2000-2004 was 1.3 per cent, compared with 2.4 per cent overall for 41 industrialised nations.
When compared with Kyoto's 1990 benchmark, however, the picture is different. Emissions of all industrialised countries declined by 3.3 per cent between 1990 and 2004, while US emissions grew by almost 16 per cent.
- (AP)