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BUSH
REJECTS ACTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE - Jul
4 2005
Edinburgh/London
- President Bush's pledge to put US
interests ahead of significant action to tackle climate
change has been greeted with anger by Friends of the
Earth International. The environmental campaign group is
urging the remaining G8
leaders to isolate the US administration at the G8 talks
this week.
Speaking
in a TV interview tonight, President Bush is reported to
have accepted that climate change is "a significant
long-term issue we've got to deal with" and is
man-made "to a certain extent". But he
will refuse to support any moves for binding cuts in
greenhouse gases. "If this looks like Kyoto, the
answer is no. [Kyoto] would have destroyed our
economy."
Friends
of the Earth International vice chair, Tony Juniper,
said "The Bush Administration's policies on climate
change are shortsighted, negligent and immoral. The
President says that he won't agree to pollution
reduction targets because he wants to protect the
American economy, but his actions will lead to economic
damages of immense scale, including in the USA. The Bush
agenda is clearly driven by vested interests, including
companies which see America's addiction to oil as their
license to print money".
Arnie
- 9mm finger
"The
other G8 leaders must now isolate President Bush and
find common cause with those countries who do see the
need for urgent action, including China and India. One
day the USA will come on board, in the meantime those
countries who see the threat must forge ahead."
Bush's
refusal to act flies in the face of action already being
taken in the United States. Many Republican senators now
accept the reality of human-induced global warming,
while several states have decided to cut emissions, and
more than 150 city mayors have adopted Kyoto-style
emissions reduction targets. The Governor of California,
Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday was quoted calling
"Governments everywhere" to tackle carbon
emissions.
Contact
details:
Friends
of the Earth
26-28 Underwood St.
LONDON N1 7JQ
Tel: 020 7490 1555
Fax: 020 7490 0881
Email: info@foe.co.uk
Website: www.foe.co.uk
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Climate
change is a global challenge and requires a global
solution. Greenhouse gas emissions have the same
impact on the atmosphere whether they originate in
Washington, London or Beijing. Consequently, action
by one country to reduce emissions will do little to
slow global warming unless other countries act as
well. Ultimately, an effective strategy will
require commitments and action by all the major emitting
countries.
The
international response to climate change was launched in
1992, at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, with the
signing of the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The Convention established a long-term objective of
stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the
atmosphere "at a level that would prevent dangerous
anthropogenic interference with the climate
system". It also set a voluntary goal of reducing
emissions from developed countries to 1990 levels by
2000 - a goal that most countries did not meet.
Recognizing
that stronger action was needed, countries negotiated
the 1997 Kyoto
Protocol, which sets binding targets to reduce
emissions 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by
2012. The Protocol entered into force on February
16, 2005, which made the Protocol's emissions targets
binding legal commitments for those industrialized
countries that ratified it (the United States and
Australia have not ratified it). In addition, the
market-based mechanisms established under the Protocol,
including international emissions trading and the Clean
Development Mechanism, became fully operational with the
Protocol's entry into force.
Attention
now is turning to strengthening the international
framework for the years following the Kyoto Protocol's
initial commitment period (2008 - 2012). The overriding
challenge is to forge an agreement that includes all
major emitting countries - both developed and developing
- and begins signficant long-term reductions in global
emissions. In 2003, the Pew Center engaged more than 100
experts, policymakers, and stakeholders from nearly
three dozen countries to address this issue. This
initiative continues with the Climate
Dialogue at Pocantico, a series of off-line
discussions among 25 senior policymakers and
stakeholders from 15 countries exploring options for
next steps in the international climate
effort. The final
report of the Pocantico dialogue was released
on November 15, 2005.
CONTACTS:
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London Authority
Phone: (011)020-7983-4000
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