Little hope of US pledging to cut CO₂ emissions...

30 June 1997 00:00  [Source: ICB]

The second Earth Summit held in New York last week failed to achieve any commitment from the US and Japan on greenhouse gas reduction.

Earth Summit II opened in New York last week with few hopes intact of gaining a US commitment on combating climate change. The Clinton administration looked certain to refuse to set targets for reduced carbon dioxide emissions unless developing countries first agree to such a commitment.

The week-long summit marked the fifth anniversary of the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Its chief aims were to review progress since 1992 on the implementation of Agenda 21, and to reach a global deal on climate change in time for a UN conference in Kyoto, Japan, in December.

However, the New York talks were hampered by earlier indecision at the G7/G8 Summit in Denver. This saw the US and Japan refuse demands by the European Union (EU) to adopt specific targets to cut the three main greenhouse gases by 15% of their 1990 levels by 2010. Jacques Santer, president of the European Commission,. said he was 'frankly disappointed' at the outcome.

French president Jacques Chirac claimed in Denver that Europe and the US had 'highly divergent views' on the environment and accused the US of being the world's biggest polluter. Research by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) targets North America as ranking lowest among industrialised countries in efforts to curb climate change.

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The UK and Germany have two of the best records. Both aim to go beyond EU targets by cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 20% by 2010. In an address to the UN General Assembly in New York, UK prime minister Tony Blair said the UK had met its Rio obligations and added: 'Unless the great industrialised nations play their part our targets will not be taken seriously.'

Marylyn MacKenzie Hedger of the WWF said short-term reduction targets were 'urgently' needed but conceded 'it looks as if the fossil fuel lobby has won the day in the US and stopped all progress'. The lack of concessions by the US on carbon dioxide emission reductions make commitments by the developing world at the Kyoto meeting unlikely.

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