Activists: U.S. to Reject Climate Deal

[marmar]

From AP:


Activists: U.S. to Reject Climate Deal

Saturday, May 26, 2007

LONDON - The United States is preparing to reject new targets on climate change at a Group of Eight summit next month, dashing German and British hopes for a new global pact on carbon emissions, according to a document released by environmentalists.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, holding the rotating presidency of both the G-8 bloc of industrialized nations and the European Union, wants the June meeting to agree targets for cuts in greenhouse gas output and a timetable for a major agreement on emissions reduction to succeed the Kyoto Protocol.

But unattributed comments written on a draft summit communique, which Greenpeace said were written by U.S. officials and handed to the group by an undisclosed third party, suggest the White House has major reservations.

"The U.S. still has serious, fundamental concerns about this draft statement," the notes on the document read. "The treatment of climate change runs counter to our overall position and crosses multiple 'red lines' in terms of what we simply cannot agree to."

The 27 EU members have agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020 - building on Kyoto, which runs through 2012 - and by 30 percent if a broader international agreement can be reached.

Though Merkel and outgoing British leader Tony Blair - who made climate change a key priority for his final weeks in office - have pressed President Bush to back a new agreement, the document claimed the White House is "fundamentally opposed" to many of the European objectives.

The U.S., the world's biggest polluter, did not ratify the Kyoto agreement through which developed countries agreed to cut emissions by 5 percent below their 1990 level by 2012. .....(more)

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