Environmental Issues Tug-of-War Spans Oceans
By John Millrany - March 29, 2001President Bush’s early dust-ups with environmentalists over water, air and soil concerns are not exclusive to domestic issues; across the Atlantic, there are signs of foreboding squabbles having to do with global warming.
In a dispatch from Berlin, AP's Tony Czuczka reported March 28 that German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder will urge Bush not to back off a key accord against global warming when the two leaders meet for the first time today in Washington, DC.
Czuczka said "Europeans are dismayed at Bush’s recent announcement that he would not seek curbs on carbon dioxide emissions from US industry, contrary to a campaign pledge."
Briefing reporters on condition of anonymity, a German official said, "We hope the Americans will change their mind, because we Europeans think we have better arguments." The official reported that Schroeder wrote to Bush this month urging him to rethink his stand on pollution, but had received no reply.
Czuczka said the Bush administration "is reviewing its stand on the treaty negotiated in Kyoto, Japan, ahead of a UN climate conference in July. But Christie Whitman, head of the US Environmental Protection Agency, said Tuesday the administration has no plans to implement the accord because Congress would never ratify it."
Expecting to meet with Congressional leaders as well, Schroeder said in a March 28 interview with the Los Angeles Times, "It is important that the US accept its responsibility for the world climate. They are the biggest economy in the world and the heaviest energy consumers."
If it adhered to the Kyoto agreement, which calls for industrial nations to reduce emission of so-called greenhouse gases that are blamed by scientists for dangerously heating up the Earth’s atmosphere, the US would be required to cut emissions about a third by 2012.
Ouch. What price would that be to the American economy?
At any rate, Bush’s presumed opposition to the climate treaty is "worrying" to the European Union Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstroem. From Brussels, Belgium, she stated that the 15-nation EU is committed to implementing the treaty.
Once again, there is the diametrically differing positions between Bush and the previous Clinton administration, which had viewed the treaty as essential in protecting the environment, whereas Bush on various occasions has dismissed the Kyoto accord, saying that he doesn’t believe mandatory controls on carbon dioxide emissions are necessary.
According to AP’s Czuczka, "Bush’s statements have thrown a wrench into upcoming talks aimed at finding a solution as to how the protocol would be implemented."
UN talks on implementing the Kyoto agreement and cutting greenhouse gas emissions resume July 16 in Bonn, Germany.
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