G8 CLIMATE CHANGE MEMO IS A REALITY CHECK
The Times, 25 May 2007
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1842418.ece
By David Charter, Brussels
The exposure of what the White House really thinks about European
efforts to tackle climate change will shatter any hope of progress
towards new Kyoto-style targets at the G8 summit on June 6 - 8 in
Germany.
The notes scrawled in red ink by US officials on the
carefully-prepared draft final communiqué show the mountain that
Chancellor Angela Merkel had to climb before persuading this US
President to submit his country's industry to rigid targets.
George Bush has modified his language on climate change considerably
since taking office in 2000 and now accepts that greenhouse gases are
a "problem". That is a leap for a White House which has poured scorn
on whether climate change was man-made at all.
But no-one should be that surprised at the tough US bargaining
position. There was never any chance that Mr Bush would agree to
binding targets for reducing CO2 emissions, which Congress has been
united in viewing as punitive for the US economy.
The private views of the Chinese at this stage in negotiations might
not have looked much different to the US position and China is set to
overtake the US to become the world's biggest polluter within a few
years.
At least President Bush has been making some steps towards tackling
emissions, notably by decreeing that 20 per cent of petrol should come
from biofuels by 2020. This will ensure a de facto contribution
towards cutting harmful gases. At his last press conference with Mrs
Merkel, Mr Bush talked of a virtuous circle of biofuels making money
for developing countries and cleaning up emissions in developed
countries.
He has also committed millions of dollars of federal research funds to
developing the technologies that the EU hopes the developing world
will adopt. The EU talks loftily of carbon capture being the way
forward to help countries like China reduce emissions, yet not one
large scale experiment has been undertaken to prove this really works.
So, although Mrs Merkel will have to scale back her ambitions, she
will not be too disappointed that the tough US position has leaked
out. Anything she can get agreement on at the summit will be viewed as
a bonus now.
--
There may come a time when the CO2 police will wander the earth telling
the poor and the dispossed how many dung chips they can put on their
cook fires. -- Captain Compassion.
Wherever I go it will be well with me, for it was well with me here, not
on account of the place, but of my judgments which I shall carry away
with me, for no one can deprive me of these; on the contrary, they alone
are my property, and cannot be taken away, and to possess them suffices
me wherever I am or whatever I do. -- EPICTETUS
Celibacy in healthy human beings is a form of
insanity. -- Captain Compassion
"Civilization is the interval between Ice Ages." -- Will Durant.
Joseph R. Darancette
daranc@NOSPAMcharter.net
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