We're serious about global warming, U.S. says

DEBORAH ZABARENKO AND JEFF MASON

Reuters News Service

September 28, 2007

 

WASHINGTON -- The United States insisted yesterday that it is serious about global warming and tried to reassure skeptics that President George W. Bush's gathering of major polluting nations would not undermine UN efforts.

But some participants and environmentalists are unconvinced, voicing concern that Washington is trying to rally support for voluntary emission cuts rather than the mandatory reductions called for in the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

"I want to stress that the United States takes climate change very seriously, for we are both a major economy and a major emitter," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said at the start of the two-day conference.

"Climate change is a global problem and we are contributing to it," she said. "Therefore, we are prepared to expand our leadership to address the challenge."

Outside the State Department where the sessions were held, dozens of protesters held up anti-Bush placards reading, "Bush is a criminal" and "Stop global warming now."

"We're here to register our protest at this charade," said Greenpeace USA chief John Passacantando. "President Bush is trying to take the world in the wrong direction on global warming, and this meeting is nothing more than a propaganda effort to deflect international criticism."

Diplomatic security formed a line to stop protesters from entering the building. Nearly 50 demonstrators were arrested.

By most counts, the United States is the world's top emitter of greenhouse gases. But Mr. Bush, who rejected the Kyoto Protocol, continues to resist binding targets, calling instead for voluntary approaches and "aspirational" long-term goals.

Ms. Rice said individual nations should set their own goals to curb climate-warming emissions, especially carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants and petroleum-fuelled vehicles.

Critics questioned whether such voluntary targets would work.

"We appreciate the sentiments expressed by Secretary Rice, but the devil is always in the detail," South African Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said.

"That is still the crux of the difference between the approach of the U.S. and the approach of the rest of the world," he said, referring to the split over national versus global targets. "For us, this meeting is obviously to determine if the U.S. is willing to change [its] approach on that issue."

Chief United Nations climate-change representative Yvo de Boer told the conference he thought the discussions could contribute to the UN process.