Published: September 27, 2007 07:08 am      

Bush climate goals marked by bureaucracy rather than cuts in greenhouse gases

Washington — The United States is lining up with China, India and the world's other biggest polluters in opposition to mandatory cuts in Earth-warming greenhouse gases sought by the United Nations and European countries.

President Bush's two-day climate meeting, opening Thursday, will emphasize creating more processes to find a solution to global warming, rather than setting firm goals for reducing carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for heating up the atmosphere.

The nations summoned by Bush will "seek agreement on the process" and more work teams for nations to set their own strategies beyond 2012, when the U.N.-brokered Kyoto Protocol expires, according to a White House statement Wednesday.

It also "could include a long-term global goal, nationally defined midterm goals and strategies, and sector-based approaches for improving energy security and reducing greenhouse gas emissions," the White House said.

That has European leaders, who concede that the biggest polluting nations must be part of any solution, walking a thin line between skepticism and optimism.

"We can't do this on the basis of talking about talking or setting goals to set goals," John Ashton, a special representative on climate change for the British foreign secretary, said in an interview. "We know that a voluntary approach to global warming is about as effective as a voluntary speed limit sign in the road. We don't just need an approach that works; we need an approach that works very quickly."

Bush's meeting notably includes the fast-emerging economies whose exclusion from the group of industrialized nations participating in Kyoto has been cited by his administration as reasons for rejecting that international climate accord.

By doing so, Bush has competed for attention with the climate change summit that was held Monday in New York City at which U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned 80 world leaders that "the time for doubt has passed" and urged fast action to save future generations from potentially ruinous effects of global warming.

The U.S.-led talks Thursday and Friday unite countries at both ends of the economic spectrum, the haves and have-nots, in opposition to mandatory cuts in greenhouse gases, but for different reasons. The already industrialized nations do not want to harm their economies, as Bush has argued. Developing nations do not want to give up ground toward industrializing — and meeting basic human needs.

"For a developing country, the main task is to reduce poverty," Xie Zhenhua, vice chairman of China's national development and reform commission, told a forum Wednesday sponsored by the Center for Clean Air Policy, a think tank.

Mexico's environment minister agreed. "We have always to bear in mind that half our population is at the poverty line," said Juan Rafael Elvira Quesada. "We are also extremely concerned about the consequences, the adverse effects of climate change."

They expressed a strong preference for the climate negotiations later this year sponsored by the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, for which Ban's summit Monday was intended to build momentum.

"All these discussions should be taken within the framework of the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol," Xie said.

But developing countries still are trying to curb their emissions while lifting the welfare of their citizens, said Sergio Serra, Brazil's first ambassador in charge of global warming issues.

"It is a myth to think the developing countries are doing nothing to address climate change," he said.

Portuguese environment minister Humberto Rosa, whose country currently holds the European Union presidency, said it would be unfair to expect developing nations to adopt firm targets for cutting carbon emissions, the way the biggest industrialized polluters should.

Three U.N. envoys on climate change and the German environment minister urged U.S. lawmakers Wednesday to commit to binding caps on emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.