快猫短视频

THE US appears to have gone back on its pledge to tackle global warming by
limiting greenhouse gases. President George W. Bush said last week that he
opposes controlling carbon emissions from power plants. But rather than kill off
the faltering Kyoto Protocol, the decision may force the rest of the world to go
it alone and seal an agreement without American cooperation.

The protocol, agreed in 1997, commits industrial countries to cutting
greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2 per cent from 1990 levels by 2012. But the
world鈥檚 nations failed to agree on how to achieve this when they met in
Amsterdam last year
(快猫短视频, 2 December 2000, p 4).
The next round of talks will take place in Bonn, Germany in July.

But Bush鈥檚 new position might convince other countries there is no point in
waiting for the US to fall into line. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think it will kill the
negotiations, because there are a lot of countries committed to the Kyoto
Protocol. But it might kill any US influence in how the rules are drawn up,鈥�
says Eileen Claussen, of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, who handled
climate negotiations in the early years of Clinton鈥檚 administration.

In an open letter to four Republican senators, Bush said last week that power
companies should not be forced to control CO₂ emissions because this
would drive up the cost of electricity. This reverses the position Bush took on
controlling emissions when campaigning for the presidency.

Bush鈥檚 letter cites a recent Department of Energy study, which shows that
limiting CO₂ would force utilities to switch from using coal to more
expensive natural gas. By 2010, average electricity prices could rise by 40 per
cent, according to the study.

Environmentalists and officials from Britain, Sweden, France, the European
Union and elsewhere immediately criticised Bush鈥檚 announcement. 鈥淭he US, the
country with the greatest output of emissions that cause global warming, would
bear a heavy responsibility for casting doubt on an accord unanimously approved
by the international community,鈥� French Environment Minister Dominique Voynet
said in a letter to the US Environmental Protection Agency. 鈥淚t would be
unfortunate if this did represent a change of policy by the US, which agreed to
the Kyoto Protocol in 1997,鈥� says William Mach, a spokesman for Britain鈥檚
Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions.

The US is the world鈥檚 largest single contributor to greenhouse gases,
emitting about 25 per cent of the total. In 1999, according to the EPA, the US
produced 5558 billion kilograms of CO₂, over 1700 billion kilograms of
which came from coal-fired power plants.

But Claussen says it鈥檚 possible the rest of the world will decide to go ahead
with climate negotiations without the US. The Kyoto Protocol will go into effect
once countries producing 55 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions agree. That
could happen if every country except the US, Canada and Australia sign on. Bill
Hare, who represented Greenpeace at the Amsterdam talks, thinks there is a 50:50
chance that other countries will reach an agreement without the US.

But Klaus T枚pfer, executive director of the UN Environment Programme,
says that an agreement without the US would be fatally weakened. 鈥淭he US is
needed. It is responsible for up to 25 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions,鈥�
T枚pfer told 快猫短视频. He thinks Bush can be persuaded that it
will be cheaper to limit emissions now rather than pay for the long-term
environmental problems it will cause.

Already, Bush is facing political opposition at home. Last week a cross-party
group of four senators introduced a bill that would require power plants to
reduce carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2007.