----- forwarded message ----- Date: Sat, 3 Nov 2001 06:31:06 EST From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: US Seeks to Protect Its Interest on Rejected Climate Treaty
November 2, 2001 Dow Jones Newswires US Seeks To Promote Interests At Global Climate Talks Dow Jones Newswires MARRAKECH, Morocco (AP)--Despite the U.S. rejection of a global climate treaty in March, U.S. officials insist they aren't idle at negotiations over global warming. Nearly 4,000 delegates from 163 countries and nongovernment organizations are attending a two-week conference here to work out technical details of the climate treaty, signed by nearly 180 nations in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997. The treaty aims to reduce global warming by requiring industrialized countries to cut emissions of pollutants from 1990 levels by an average of 5.2% between 2008 and 2012. The U.S., whose expertise helped craft the Kyoto pact, disavowed in March its signing of the accord, saying that it would harm the U.S. economy and that any such treaty should include developing countries. A senior member of the U.S. delegation, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Washington wasn't taking an active role in negotiating specific actions to achieve the treaty's targets for greenhouse gas reductions. But he insisted delegation members aren't sitting on the sidelines. U.S. officials said their role was to advise others at the conference on technical matters and to ensure the treaty's language wouldn't hurt U.S. interests. Diplomats from other nations said they wanted the U.S., the world's biggest polluter, to rejoin the talks but acknowledged that wasn't likely. The treaty takes effect only after ratification by countries that produced 55% of the included industrialized nations' greenhouse gas emissions in 1990. Japan, Australia, Canada and Russia have said the treaty will be difficult to ratify without the U.S., which is responsible for about one-fourth of the world's greenhouse gases - chiefly carbon dioxide from cars, power plants and factories. Environmentalists noted that the U.S. market-based policies were behind much of the thinking in the Kyoto pact on key issues such as the trading of emissions credits for countries that surpass their pollution targets, and carbon "sinks" - forest or agricultural land that absorb carbon and offset a country's emissions quota. "It's rather ironic that the United States isn't involved," said Jennifer Morgan of the World Wildlife Fund. Copyright � 2001 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
