To-day's Irish Times commentary about Bush and the Kyoto Protocol. This may
seem to be off topic, but it can parallel many other issues, metric one of
them. Metrication could be rejected by Bush on the same grounds which are
cited here.
Han
Friday, March 30, 2001
Bush Backs Out
The rest of the world, including the Government, has reacted with
justifiable anger and outrage to the announcement that President George W.
Bush has rejected the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, which commits
signatory States to reduce their emissions of the greenhouse gases that
cause global warming. Since the United States is responsible for at least 25
per cent of worldwide emissions, with only four per cent of world
population, the decision appears to confirm a **pattern of arrogant
unilateralism in the emerging Bush foreign policy.**
That is exemplified by the terms of the announcement, which said the
protocol "exempts the developing countries around the world and it is not in
the US economy's best interests". Mr Bush said yesterday he would not accept
a plan "which will harm the American economy and harm American workers".
If that is the way his administration wants to play the international game
it would be as well they are fully aware of the consequences. Despite its
military hegemony and economic strength the US is highly interdependent with
the rest of the world and relies on its goodwill for its own prosperity and
security.
A refusal to co-operate on a crucial issue like climate change will affect
other important negotiations, such as those on world trade, genetically
modified food and food additives, as well as more conventional foreign
policy matters where the US needs a favourable outcome to protect its
interests.
Such consequences were spelled out by the European Union's Environment
Commissioner, Ms Margot Wallstrom. She is likely to get support from EU
environment ministers at their informal meeting in Sweden this weekend. They
will hear initial responses from other European meetings with Mr Bush and
his advisers, at which they will strongly urge him to reconsider this
decision.
Several EU leaders said they do not believe this is Washington's last word
on the matter. But it will not be easy to persuade the US to come back into
the Kyoto Protocol regime rather than attempt to negotiate a new agreement,
as the Bush administration says it wants to do.
Negotiations on implementing Kyoto broke down in The Hague last November
after the EU and the US failed to reach agreement on the use of forests in
the developing world to absorb greenhouse gases. The hostile reaction to
this decision should jolt the new administration into a clearer realisation
that in a more multipolar world it will be much more difficult to get its
way.
It is one thing to say - which is true - that Kyoto is incapable of
ratification because of overwhelming opposition in the US Senate, or to
propose alternative means of reducing emissions using new technology. It is
quite another to make such unilateral announcements. US allies and partners
should not abandon the Kyoto Protocol but exert maximum pressure on the US
to re-engage with it.
It is unacceptable that the US should so blithely disregard its obligations
on such a central issue of world concern. This is especially so since there
is more than a hint that the administration is inclined to reject the firm
international scientific consensus that global warming is indeed caused by
human activity - principally the burning of fossil fuels in the most
developed States, and primarily in the US itself.
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