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U.S. WANTS NO WARMING PROPOSAL
ADMINISTRATION AIMS TO PREVENT ARCTIC COUNCIL SUGGESTIONS
By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 4, 2004; Page A13

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23541-2004Nov3.html

The Bush administration has been working for months to keep an upcoming
eight-nation report from endorsing broad policies aimed at curbing global
warming, according to domestic and foreign participants, despite the group's
conclusion that Arctic latitudes are facing historic increases in
temperature, glacial melting and abrupt weather changes.

State Department representatives have argued that the group, which has spent
four years examining Arctic climate fluctuations, lacks the evidence to
prepare detailed policy proposals. But several participants in the
negotiations, all of whom requested anonymity for fear of derailing the Nov.
24 report, said officials from the eight nations and six indigenous tribes
involved in the effort had ample science on which to draft policy.

The recommendations are based on a study, which was leaked last week, that
concludes the Arctic is warming much faster than other areas of the world
and that much of this change is linked to human-generated greenhouse gas
emissions. The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment -- produced by a council of
nations with Arctic territory that includes the United States, Canada,
Russia and several Nordic countries -- reflects the work of more than 300
scientists.

Several individuals close to the negotiations said the Bush administration
-- which opposes mandatory cuts in carbon emissions on the grounds that they
will cost American jobs -- had repeatedly resisted even mild language that
would endorse the report's scientific findings or call for mandatory curbs
on greenhouse gas emissions.

An early draft of the policy statement -- which is set to be issued two
weeks after the 144-page scientific overview is released Monday -- included
a paragraph saying that to achieve the goals set under a 1992 international
climate change treaty known as the Rio Accord, the "Arctic Council urges the
member states to individually and when appropriate, jointly, adopt climate
change strategies across relevant sectors. These strategies should aim at
the reduction of the emission of greenhouse gases."

The administration has pushed to drop that section. As one senior State
Department official who asked not to be identified put it, "We're bound by
the administration's position. We're not going to make global climate policy
at the Arctic Council."

The World Wildlife Fund's Arctic Program director Samantha Smith said the
council's scientific conclusions, which said temperature increases in some
parts of the Arctic increased tenfold compared with the last century's
worldwide average rise of 1 degree Fahrenheit, justified immediate action.

"This is the first full-scale assessment of climate change in the Arctic and
it shows dramatic changes in the region, with worse to come if we don't cut
emissions," said Smith, an observer at the negotiations. "We challenge the
Arctic governments to come up with a real response to the science, before
the foreign ministers meet in Iceland in November."

Administration officials said they are hesitant to endorse policy
recommendations before examining the full 1,200-page scientific report on
the Arctic.

Paula Dobriansky, the undersecretary of state for global affairs who will be
leading the U.S. delegation to Reykjavik, Iceland, later this month, said
that "the report has not been finalized or released to governments."

U.S. officials have received regular briefings on the full report, according
to Arctic Council officials, and have submitted comprehensive comments on it
over the past 18 months.

Some council participants have begun to grumble about U.S. resistance to
articulating a global climate policy. One European negotiator said the
administration is trying to "sidetrack the whole process so it is not
confronted with the question, 'Do you believe in climate change, or don't
you?' " He added that while the other member nations will try to press the
United States on the matter in the final talks, "I cannot see any solution
to this unless [the administration] clearly changes its position."

And Sheila Watt-Cloutier, head of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference and an
Arctic Council representative, wrote council chairman Gunnar Palsson of
Iceland in August that a recent draft of the report "tries and often fails
to be all things to all people and in so doing shies away from policy
recommendations, the one thing it was designed to do."

Some Senate Republicans, including Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John
McCain (Ariz.) and fellow committee member Olympia J. Snowe (Maine), are
also lobbying the administration to back a strong policy document. In late
September they and Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) wrote to Secretary of
State Colin L. Powell saying, "In order to fulfill our responsibilities to
the American people, it is critical that we, as policymakers, have access to
the latest scientific information and associated policy recommendations."

Dobriansky said the administration supports publication of the policy report
this month. "Allegations that the United States is seeking to suppress the
policy recommendations are simply not true," she said.

Palsson said in an interview that the public controversy over the U.S.
climate position was complicating his efforts to achieve a consensus among
top ministers, who are supposed to sign off on the policy findings within a
matter of weeks.

"This is such a highly sensitive political issue," he said. "Ministers have
to be able to sort these things out behind closed doors."

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PREVIOUS NHNE NEWS LIST ARTICLES:

BIG ARCTIC PERILS SEEN IN WARMING (10/30/2004):
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nhnenews/message/8178

U.S. TRYING TO BLOCK ARCTIC REPORT ON GLOBAL WARMING (9/16/2004):
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nhnenews/message/7889

WARMING TREND WILL DECIMATE ARCTIC PEOPLES (9/11/2004):
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nhnenews/message/7868

THE ARCTIC CLIMATE IMPACT ASSESSMENT REPORT (8/21/2004):
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nhnenews/message/7775

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