[noomc-it] US abandons Kyoto climate pact

["FABIOCCHI::" <fabiocchi@infinito.it>]

UPDATE - US abandons Kyoto climate pact, a blow to Europe
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USA: March 29, 2001

WASHINGTON - The White House said yesterday the United States had
effectively abandoned the 1997 Kyoto treaty to fight global warming, seen in
Europe as central to U.S.-EU relations.


"The president has been unequivocal. He does not support the Kyoto treaty,"
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters. "It is not in the United
States' economic best interest," he said.
Asked whether the United States would withdraw from the treaty, Fleischer
said it had never come into force, meaning "there's nothing to withdraw
from."

The European Union, which said last week the global warming was an integral
part U.S.-EU relations, expressed concern over the Bush administration
stance stance. Democrats and environmental groups denounced it.

"The new president came to town saying he would change the tone and change
the climate in Washington; I guess we didn't realize it was the real climate
he wanted to change," U.S. House Democratic leader Richard Gephardt of
Missouri said at a news conference.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher later said the United States was
not considering formally "unsigning" the treaty. "The administration clearly
opposes the protocol ... What we are looking for is how to work with other
governments to move forward on this," he said.

EUROPE WATCHING CLOSELY

The pact, signed by former President Bill Clinton in 1998 but never
introduced in the Senate for ratification, aims to limit industrial-nation
emissions of "greenhouse gases" thought to cause global warming.

Bush opposes the pact because it does not also bind developing nations to
curb emissions and because he believes the costs outweigh the benefits,
Fleischer said. He said Bush had ordered a Cabinet-level review of global
warming issues to develop a U.S. response to the issue.

Earlier this month, the president broke a campaign promise by announcing he
would not ask U.S. power plants to cut emissions of carbon dioxide, the gas
that a great majority of scientists say is a key factor in the Earth's
rising average temperatures.

Bush's carbon dioxide decision followed intense lobbying by coal and oil
companies and congressional conservatives who opposed the proposal.

The White House comments yesterday came a day before Bush was to hold talks
in Washington with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who asked Bush in a
letter last week to abide by the agreement.

The European Union has also asked Bush to press ahead with the deal, saying
a joint effort to fight global warming was "an integral part of relations"
with the European Union.

EU Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom said in a statement, "It is
very worrying if it is true that the U.S. intends to pull out of the Kyoto
protocol." An EU spokeswoman said the United States had not yet replied to
its request for high-level meetings to settle differences over the treaty.

Fleischer said only one of the 55 nations whose approval is required to put
the treaty in effect - Romania - had so far acted to comply with the pact.

"It is a signal worldwide that others agree with the president's position on
the treaty," he said.

He said the U.S. Senate had voted against ratifying the pact. He was
referring to a nonbinding resolution, passed 95-0 before the Kyoto pact was
reached, that said the Senate could not support any global warming pact that
did not bind developing countries along with developed countries.

"The concern is that most of the world is exempt from the treaty and the
treaty as it currently is written is not in the economic interests of the
United States as well, because of the huge costs involved that are
disproportionate to the benefits," he said.

The environmental group Friends of the Earth criticized the U.S. position as
"environmental isolationism."

"He (Bush) is systematically breaking his promises to the American public to
protect the environment and keeping his promises to the wealthy polluters
who put him in office," said organization spokesman Mark Helm.

Story by Randall Mikkelsen

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE



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