http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1521054,00.html
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports |
US close to climate change concessions
Ewen MacAskill and agencies
Monday July 4, 2005
The United States is edging towards important concessions on climate
change at this week's G8 summit, it has been revealed.
US President George Bush is now ready to concede that climate change
has scientific basis, and that collective action is required over
global warming. Until now, Mr Bush has adopted an intransigent
position, insisting there is no scientific basis to conclude that
there is such a phenomenon as global warming.
The move was signalled during last weekend's "sherpas" meeting at
Lancaster House in London, where officials met to work on a draft
agreement ahead of this week's summit in Gleneagles. One of the
diplomats involved in the negotiations confirmed today that the US
sherpa had moved and accepted a draft text in which the existence of
the problem is recognised.
The foreign secretary, Jack Straw, said he hoped for a "satisfactory
outcome both in respect of aid to Africa and in respect of climate
change" at the G8 talks later this week.
"Each country comes to these negotiations ... with its own national
perspective," Mr Straw said. "It is, I think, remarkable how far
sentiment has moved in the period since the prime minister identified
aid to Africa and climate change as the key (issues) of this G8
summit."
Mr Bush's stance will be underlined in an interview to be shown this
evening on ITV's Tonight With Trevor McDonald. He will describe
climate change as "a significant, long-term issue that we've got to
deal with", acknowledging that human activity is "to some extent" to
blame.
But Mr Bush will also warn that he will not make major concessions on
climate change in return for Tony Blair's staunch support over Iraq.
In particular, he will rule out committing the US to a Kyoto-style
binding agreement on greenhouse gases.
In the interview, recorded last week before the sherpas meeting, Mr
Bush made clear he regarded new technology as the key to halting
global warming. He indicated he believes Mr Blair is also ready to
"move beyond the Kyoto agenda" and focus on techniques like the
sequestration of carbon dioxide in underground wells, rather than on
a regime of limits on emissions.
Environmental activists immediately voiced dismay at Mr Bush's
comments, which they said could block any progress on climate change
at Gleneagles. They urged leaders of the other seven G8 countries to
sign a communiqué excluding the US rather than accept a watered down
statement which avoids calling for cuts in CO2 emissions.
But the environment secretary, Margaret Beckett, said she was deeply
reluctant to try to interpret Mr Bush's words. "I think it's been
clear for some days that negotiations were likely to go to down to
the wire and that appears still to be the case," she told the BBC
Radio 4 Today programme.
"What we wanted and what we do still want is to try to end up going
in the same direction, that wherever people come from there is a
recognition about the urgency of the problem and there is agreement.
What we hope for is quite an ambitious action plan on steps that the
international community can take, and also agreement to try to take
forward discussion and dialogue about the future."
Downing Street said that Mr Blair had never seen his relationship
with the US president in terms of a "quid pro quo".
"G8 is not about drawing the US into Kyoto or setting new standards,"
a spokeswoman said. "Because they take a different view doesn't mean
that the US cannot work with Europe and others to take forward
measures to tackle climate change."
Mr Bush's comments will be broadcast as thousands of protestors
continue a week of protest in Edinburgh and around Scotland,
following the weekend's huge Live 8 concerts and the Make Poverty
History march in the Scottish capital.
On the issue of Africa, the president brushed off campaigners'
complaints that his decision to double US development aid by 2010 was
too little, too late.
The US gives 0.2% of its GDP in overseas aid - well below the UN's
0.7% target, which EU states are committed to reaching in the next
few years. But Mr Bush insisted America was "leading the world when
it comes to helping Africa".
He expressed readiness to abandon farm subsidies which make it
difficult for African economies to compete, but only if the EU was
also prepared to scrap its common agricultural policy. "We've got
agricultural subsidies, not nearly to the extent that our friends in
the EU have," he said. "And so the position of the US government is,
we're willing to do so and we will do so with our fine friends in the
European Union."
Asked if he would make a special effort to help Mr Blair at the
summit, which begins on Wednesday, in return for his support over
Iraq, Mr Bush replied: "I really don't view our relationship as one
of quid pro quo.
"Tony Blair made decisions on what he thought was best for keeping
the peace and winning the war on terror, as I did. So I go to the G8
not really trying to make him look bad or good, but I go to the G8
with an agenda that I think is best for our country."
He made clear that he was not ready to sign up to an agreement to
reduce carbon emissions: "If this looks like Kyoto, the answer is no.
The Kyoto treaty would have wrecked our economy, if I can be blunt."
Instead, he said he wanted to talk with fellow G8 leaders about
developing new technologies to limit climate change without reducing
the availability of energy to individuals and businesses. He
highlighted his administration's £11.3bn investment in developing
technologies like hydrogen-powered cars, zero-emission power stations
and carbon sequestration.
"I think you can grow your economy and at the same time do a better
job of harnessing greenhouse gases," he said.
Edinburgh will see further demonstrations today to put pressure on
the leaders of the UK, US, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan and
Russia ahead of the summit. There are fears of violence around an
anti-capitalist demonstration planned for Edinburgh city centre.
Meanwhile a G8 bicycle protest caravan is due to arrive in the
Scottish capital from London, while anti-nuclear weapons campaigners
are attempting a blockade of the Faslane nuclear submarine base.
Schoolchildren will debate the issues facing the G8 leaders at the J8
Youth Summit in Edinburgh.
_______________________________________________
Biofuel mailing list
Biofuel@sustainablelists.org
http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org
Biofuel at Journey to Forever:
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html
Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages):
http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
