David Calder Hardy's Cosmology

Climate U S A

Wednesday March 28th 2001

By JOHN HEILPRIN
Associated Press Writer
 

B) Whitman repeatedly noted that the Senate voted 95-0 against the United States taking any action on climate change unless developing countries also take some measures to reduce heat-trapping ``greenhouse'' gases, which are mainly carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels.

C) The Kyoto agreement calls for industrial nations to reduce emissions _ at least for the time being. The United States would be  required to cut emissions about a third by 2012. Bush on a number of occasions has expressed his opposition to the Kyoto accord, which the Clinton administration had viewed as essential to dealing with the risks of climate change.

D) Whitman noted that no other industrial country has ratified the agreement. ``We are not the only ones who have problems with it,'' Whitman said.
Three weeks ago, Whitman in a memo urged Bush to continue to recognize global warming as a serious concern, arguing that to back away from the issue would be damaging both domestically and internationally.

E) ``Mr. President, this is a credibility issue for the U.S. in the international community. It is also an issue that is resonating here at home,'' she wrote in the March 6 memo. ``We need to appear engaged.'' The memo came a week before Bush announced he would not endorse legislation regulating carbon dioxide, reversing a position he had
taken during his presidential campaign.

F) On Thursday, Whitman defended the memo. ``My job as the administrator of the Environmental Protection
Agency and as a member of the Cabinet is to provide the president with my best take and what I think is in his best interest,'' she said. ``He has the broad picture and he needs to make a decision based on all the factors that he sees that I don't take into account as the administrator of the EPA,'' she continued. ``I am fully comfortable with his decision on this.''

G) Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., a leading advocate of the need to address global warming, said that the White House had undermined Whitman. He said, ``The question is being asked: Does she speak for the administration, and will she be able to enforce environmental laws and seek others where necessary?''

On the Net:
EPA: http://www.epa.gov

 

InfoBeat - Germany, EU focus on global warming

By TONY CZUCZKA
Associated Press Writer
 

I) Schroeder will also use the one-day trip to raise European concerns about American plans for a missile defense and
U.S.-Russian tensions, a German government official said. But most immediately, Europeans are dismayed at Bush's recent announcement that he would not seek curbs on carbon dioxide emissions from U.S. industry, contrary to a campaign pledge. ``We hope the Americans will change their mind, because we Europeans think we have the better arguments,'' said the German official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity this week before he trip. ``The chancellor will explain the European position.''

J) Schroeder wrote to Bush this month urging him to rethink his stand on pollution but has received no reply, the official said. The Bush administration is reviewing its stand on the treaty negotiated in Kyoto, Japan, ahead of a U.N. climate conference in July. But Christie Whitman, head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said Tuesday the administration has no plans to implement the accord because Congress would never ratify it. Schroeder also was to meet Congressional leaders in Washington. ``It is important that the U.S. accept its responsibility for the world climate,'' Schroeder said in an interview in Wednesday's Los Angeles Times. ``They are the biggest economy in the world and the heaviest energy consumers.''

K) The Kyoto agreement calls for industrial nations to reduce emissions of so-called greenhouse gases blamed by scientists for heating up the Earth's atmosphere. The United States would be required to cut emissions about a third by 2012. Also Wednesday, the European Union Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstroem said she found Bush's decision not to ratify the climate treaty ``worrying.'' In a statement issued in Brussels, Belgium, she said the

 

L) 15-nation EU is committed to implementing the treaty and expressed her dismay over Bush's position. Bush on a number of occasions has expressed his opposition to the Kyoto accord, which the Clinton administration had viewed as essential to dealing with the risks of climate change. Bush has said he did not think mandatory controls on carbon dioxide emissions were necessary. Bush's statements have thrown a wrench into upcoming talks aimed at finding a solution as to how the protocol would be implemented. United Nations talks on implementing the Kyoto agreement and cutting greenhouse gas emissions resume July 16 in Bonn, Germany.

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April 1, 2001

Bush Angers Europe by Eroding Pact on Warming

By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
 

M) FRANKFURT, March 31 — European leaders frequently bristle about American behavior, but President Bush's abrupt decision this week to abandon a treaty on global warming has provoked even more than the usual level of anger and frustration.

N) "Irresponsible," "arrogant," even "sabotage" are just a few of the charges that Europeans have leveled at Mr. Bush since he announced his refusal to follow through on the treaty, the Kyoto Protocol. And European Union representatives will take their case in favor of the accord to Washington on Monday, though their arguments are not expected to prevail.

O) The response is so intense in part because the decision has aggravated a mixture of grudges that have gnawed at Europeans for years.

P) They are angry that the United States appears oblivious to widespread environmental concerns across most of Europe.

Q) They are frustrated that the United States, by virtue of its size, can undermine a treaty that was negotiated by more than 100 countries.

R) Most of all, they are depressed that there is not much they can do about it.

S) The United States produces about 25 percent of the gases associated with global warming, and its refusal to meet goals set by Kyoto to reduce those emissions makes it difficult for competitors to stick with their goals.

T) "To suggest scrapping Kyoto and making a new agreement with more countries involved simply reflects a lack of understanding of political realities," said Margot Wallström, Europe's commissioner for environmental affairs. "We could lose years of work if we were to start from scratch."

U) Ms. Wallström will lead the delegation that meets on Monday with Christie Whitman, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency. The group is also expected to include Environment Minister Kjell Larsson of Sweden, whose country currently holds the rotating European Union presidency, and representatives of Belgium, which takes over from the Swedes in July.

V) The meeting is part of a diplomatic push that is also supposed to include visits to China, Russia, Iran and Japan to assess whether it would be possible to carry through on the Kyoto treaty without the United States.

W) Today, environment ministers from European Union countries discussed the Bush decision at a previously scheduled meeting in Sweden, where the reaction was one of indignation.

X) "Kyoto is still alive," said Mr. Larsson, who was host of the meeting in Kiruna, 60 miles north of the Arctic Circle. "No country has the right to declare Kyoto dead."

Y) The anger at the United States is spread evenly across Europe.

Z) Dominique Voynet, France's minister for the environment, called Mr. Bush's decision "completely provocative and irresponsible" and warned the United States against "continuing the work of sabotage" if other countries decided to embrace the goals of the Kyoto agreement on their own.

AA) Le Monde, the French daily newspaper, called Mr. Bush's decision "a brutal form of unilateralism." In London, The Independent reported that "history will not judge George Bush kindly."

AB) When Mr. Bush met with the German Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, in Washington on Thursday, Kyoto formed a central disagreement. "We will not do anything that harms our economy, because first things first are the people who live in America," Mr. Bush said.

AC) This kind of America-first sentiment prompted sharp criticism from the European Union Commission president, Romano Prodi. "If one wants to be a world leader, one must know how to look after the entire earth and not only American industry," the former Italian prime minister told La Repubblica newspaper.

AD) But nobody has any illusions about changing American policy, and the real question European leaders are asking is whether they can or should press ahead without America.

AE) "It is a catastrophe," said Gerd Billen, executive director of Germany's biggest environmental group, Naturschutzbund Deutschland, which has 350,000 members. "Everybody knows how hard it is to reach an international agreement on environmental issues like this, and this could destroy it."

AF) Mr. Billen and other environmental leaders are pushing for a boycott against American companies, particularly oil companies that have extensive gas-station networks in Europe.

AG) "It would be a citizens' action, and if it is done right, it could really put pressure on the oil companies," said Alexander de Roo, deputy chairman of the European Parliament's environmental committee. "I don't think that begging will be very effective. I think they will only listen to powerful arguments."

AH) As in many other international issues, from the decision to send peacekeeping forces to the Balkans to coordinating international currency rates, Europeans know from experience that it is difficult to accomplish anything without American collaboration.

AI) Under the Kyoto Protocol, which was approved in 1997 after years of negotiation, 37 other industrial countries agreed to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases by 2012 to 5.2 percent below the levels in 1990.

AJ) But the United States is by far the biggest producer of greenhouse gases, both per capita and in total. The average American consumes twice as much energy as the average European, and the emission of greenhouse gases is also about twice as high per capita in the United States as in Europe.

AK) If European countries press ahead with their own goal, European companies run the risk of incurring higher expenses while American companies benefit from easier rules.

AL) Ms. Wallström, the environmental commissioner, noted at a news conference in Brussels on Thursday that Europe did not want to end up rewarding the United States for its refusal to go along.

AM) But abandoning the goals is politically treacherous, because they enjoy strong popular support in most countries. Despite the anger that many Europeans feel toward high gasoline taxes, support for environmental regulations remains much stronger than in the United States.

AN) In the months leading up the Kyoto meetings in 1997, the European Union proposed a remarkably ambitious goal of reducing greenhouse emissions to 15 percent below the levels of 1990.

AO) Reflecting the enormous difference in the political and social climates in the United States and Europe, European business groups merely tried to moderate those goals and many industrial associations committed themselves to steep reductions in emissions as a way to escape direct government regulation.

AP) Many European environmental leaders argue that Europe needs to press ahead.

AQ) "If 55 countries representing 55 percent of worldwide CO2 emissions ratify the Kyoto protocol, then it begins to function," Mr. de Roo said.

AR) On a broader level, many Europeans are convinced that Mr. Bush is leading the United States into greater isolation. Many commentators seized upon Mr. Bush's comment last week that he would not do anything to weaken the American economy. The announcement was front-page news across Europe, and it quickly prompted a storm of criticism.

AS) "We are back to Ronald Reagan and America First," said Noel Mamer, a leader of the French Green party and a member of Parliament. "I think the decision is completely mad, and it is a reason for more isolation for America."

AT) But even some of the fiercest European critics admit that they have little leverage. In Brussels, European leaders carefully avoided making any threats and said they merely planned to "explain" their position to the Bush administration.

AU) "The United States will probably come out of this crisis of trans-Atlantic relations as the winner," said Libération, the left-leaning French newspaper. But, it added, "Those who spew gases run the risk of reaping, long before the climate has heated up, an explosive hostility in public opinion and diplomatic isolation."

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