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U-Turn on CO2 Limits |
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Environmental News Service
The President's change of heart on power plants and CO2 is revealed in a letter this week to four congressmen. Carbon dioxide should not be controlled under a draft law aimed at cutting emissions of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and mercury, Bush writes, because it is not defined as a pollutant under the U.S. Clean Air Act. Furthermore, Bush writes, utilities would increase prices "at a time of rising energy prices and a serious energy shortage." "Without U.S. leadership, effective global action on climate change may not be possible," said Klaus Toepfer, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on Thursday. "The United States of America has much to gain from leading the way into the new low emissions economy of the 21st century," he said. Toepfer, a former German environment minister, was speaking in Copenhagen after discussing climate change issues with Svend Auken, Denmark’s minister of the environment, who shares the concern of UNEP over the lack of U.S. leadership. Toepfer is in Denmark to celebrate the 10th anniversary of UNEP’s collaborating center on energy and the environment. Talks on the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement that would limit emissions of CO2 and five other greenhouse gases linked to global warming, broke down in November, in the last months of the administration of U.S. President Bill Clinton. The Clinton administration had been working with the international community to find ways of cutting emissions without damaging industrial productivity such as development of renewable energy technologies. President Bush, a former oilman, took office January 20, promising to reassess all of the Clinton administration's climate policies.
Under the Kyoto Protocol, 39 industrialized nations agreed to cut their emissions of six greenhouse gases linked to global warming. They must reduce emissions to an average of 5.2 percent below 1990 levels during the five year period 2008 to 2012. The emissions of developing nations will be controlled by subsequent negotiations under the climate treaty.
The Kyoto Protocol has been signed by the United States and most other nations, but it will not take effect until it is ratified by 55 percent of the nations emitting at least 55 percent of the six greenhouse gases.
Since the United States emits roughly one-quarter of all greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere, ratification by the United States is considered essential to entry into force of the protocol. International negotiations on the Kyoto Protocol as scheduled to resume in July in Bonn, Germany. Toepfer said, "We know that the U.S. is the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases and is therefore an important part of the problem. But the U.S. is also our best hope for a solution. Simply put, the U.S. is the world’s most technologically innovative country. Its industries are most likely to develop the climate friendly products and services that must one day soon set the world onto a clean energy path," he said. The European Union's Swedish Presidency expressed "deep concern" over Bush's stated "doubts about the Kyoto protocol." It welcomed the president's commitment stated in his letter to the congressmen to "work with friends and allies" to "address climate change." But the Swedish presidency said the European Union wished to "underline very strongly that cooperation ... must be based on a legally binding document." Three reports issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) this year and adopted by represtatives of 100 governments have confirmed that global warming is occurring more rapidly than previously predicted with consequences such as extreme weather events, sea level rise, coastal flooding and spread of tropical diseases to temperate latitudes that will affect the entire world, including the United States. A study released Thursday by a team of physicists from the Imperial College, London, confirms the reality of global warming by comparing satellite data over a 27 year period. "While developing countries are at greatest risk," Toepfer said, "climate change will also pose challenges for rich countries such as Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. In North America, the IPCC projects increasing frequency, severity and duration of weather disasters including floods, droughts, storms and landslides." "In all sectors," Toepfer warned, "water, health, food, energy, insurance, governments and human settlements, the risk exists that impacts of climate change will overstress existing institutional structures and engineered systems designed for a more stable world." |
Bush is scaring more than just Americans with his policies 
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