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U.S. OFFERING KYOTO PROTOCOL ALTERNATIVE
By ROD McGUIRK
Associated Press
July 27, 2005

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050727/ap_on_sc/australia_global_warming_1

CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA - The United States will join India, China and Australia
in announcing a new pact to limit greenhouse gases as an alternative to the
Kyoto Protocol, Australia's environment minister said Wednesday.

The agreement was expected to be announced later Wednesday by
President Bush in Washington and on Thursday by officials from signatory
countries meeting at an Association of Southeast Asian Nations security
forum in Laos.

While 140 countries ratified the 1997 Kyoto agreement to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions, Australia and the U.S. have refused because developing
countries weren't required to adopt emission targets.

Environment Minister Ian Campbell said Canberra and Washington had for the
past 12 months been negotiating a new multilateral agreement targeting
rapidly developing countries which pump out large amounts of greenhouse gas.

Labeling the Kyoto Protocol ineffective and a failure, Campbell said it was
vital for developed countries to create and deploy modern technologies to
help energy-hungry Asia-Pacific economies such as China and India slash
emissions.

"We know that this is the answer; we know that the Kyoto Protocol is a
failure in terms of saving the climate ‹ we have to do better," Campbell
said.

His comments came after a newspaper reported that the five nations, which
account for 40 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, had struck a
U.S.-driven secret alliance called the Asia-Pacific Partnership for Clean
Development and Climate.

Prime Minister John Howard discussed the strategy with Bush and Secretary of
State
Condoleezza Rice when he visited Washington last week, The Australian
newspaper reported.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met with Bush on the same subject on
the same day, the newspaper said.

The opposition Labor Party called on the government to immediately ratify
the Kyoto pact. Its leader, Kim Beazley, dismissed the new agreement,
saying, "It is nothing. It's spin."

Greenpeace, which blockaded an Australian coal port Wednesday to protest
Australia's reliance on fossil fuels, agreed that the Kyoto Protocol was the
best option.

"Environment Minister Ian Campbell concedes a comprehensive agreement
involving all major emitters is needed," Greenpeace energy campaigner
Catherine Fitzpatrick said.

"Skulking around making secretive, selective deals will not accomplish this.
Signing up to the Kyoto Protocol will," she added.

Australia has refused to ratify the Kyoto pact on the grounds it could
damage an economy heavily reliant on coal and gas exports while doing
nothing to curb the increasing levels of pollution billowing from developing
countries such as China and India.

The U.S. is the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, followed by
China.

The Bush administration has opposed regulating carbon dioxide or other
greenhouse gases, contending that voluntary actions by industry are already
reducing emissions growth, and to go further would harm the U.S. economy and
raise energy prices.

Earlier this month in Scotland, the Group of Eight industrialized countries
bowed to U.S. pressure by approving a declaration on climate change that
avoided taking any concrete steps to fight global warming, such as setting
targets or timetables for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The Kyoto Protocol, which went into force in February, imposes legally
binding requirements on 35 industrialized states to cut emissions of
greenhouse gases an average of 5 percent below 1990 levels.

Average global temperatures rose about 1 degree in the 20th century, and
scientists say that has contributed to the thawing of the permafrost, rising
ocean levels and extreme weather. Experts say further increases could
seriously disrupt ecosystems, agriculture and human lifestyles.

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Published by David Sunfellow
NewHeavenNewEarth (NHNE)
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