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Bush bid on climate under fire
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Olivier Knox, Washington
August 5, 2007
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US PRESIDENT George Bush has invited the world's big polluters, including Australia, to a conference next month to set long-term goals on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
Environmental groups have called the plan a diversion from other efforts to combat global warming. But Washington says it complements UN-driven talks on the issue.
The summit, conceived as a forum to discuss ways to halt the rise in global temperatures and show Mr Bush's recent embrace of the issue of climate change, will not signal any change in US policies.
Mr Bush opposes mandatory curbs on greenhouse gas emissions and emphasises the development of clean technology over energy conservation.
"We expect to place special emphasis on how major economies can … accelerate the development and deployment of clean technologies, a critical component of an effective global approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions," he said in the invitation letter.
Mr Bush has asked Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and South Korea to send representatives to Washington for the September 27-28 meeting.
Mr Bush also invited delegations from Europe and the United Nations.
The Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, will host the talks and Mr Bush will address the meeting.
"The United States is committed to collaborating with other major economies to agree on a detailed contribution for a new global framework by the end of 2008, which would contribute to a global agreement under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change by 2009," Mr Bush said.
Like Australia, the US — the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases — has refused to ratify the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which mandates cuts in the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. It expires in 2012.
Mr Bush has cited the pact's exemptions for China and India — as developing nations — from mandatory greenhouse gas targets as a chief reason for not submitting the protocol for Senate ratification. Both countries are big consumers of oil, gas and coal.
Presidential spokesman Scott Stanzel dismissed a question from a reporter about whether the White House conference was aimed at competing with or deflecting attention from a UN meeting scheduled for September 24. He said the meeting was "intended to aid the UN process".
The Union of Concerned Scientists advocacy group said that, given Mr Bush's opposition to Kyoto, the world wanted to see whether he would "put any meaningful proposals on the table".
"Binding commitments to reduce emissions, together with policies that put a price on global warming pollution, are needed to get the job done," the union's director of strategy and policy, Alden Meyer, said.
"Until President Bush is willing to accept this reality, the process he is launching next month is unlikely to make any significant contribution to addressing the climate crisis."
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last week appealed for a new climate change deal by 2009, coming into force by the time the Kyoto protocol expires.
UN talks on a new protocol will begin in earnest at a conference in Bali in December.
Prime Minister John Howard has flagged climate change as a big topic of talks at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum in Sydney next month, which Mr Bush is scheduled to attend.
AFP, WASHINGTON POST