U.S. Seen as Laggard at U.N. Climate Change Meeting
BUENOS AIRES — The United States is the big odd man out as diplomats, scientists and environmentalists from more than 190 countries gather here at the 10th meeting of the United Nations' Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The focus of the convention is the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which mandates reduction of greenhouse gases that cause global warming and will take effect next year.
Discussions of new limits are expected to begin here when official delegations arrive Wednesday, near the end of the 12-day conference.
Among major industrial countries, only the U.S. and Australia have failed to ratify the accord, which commits signatory nations to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and other gases to 5.2% below 1990 levels by 2012.
Observers here say the U.S. is increasingly being shut out as the rest of the world adopts global mechanisms by which each country will meet its targeted reductions, including one that allows companies to trade reductions in carbon emissions in a kind of global pollution market.
The U.S., which accounts for about a third of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, pulled out of the agreement in 2001.
U.S. officials last week acknowledged a global rise in temperatures caused by human activity but said the increase had not yet reached the "dangerous" levels that required drastic action.
They reiterated that the Bush administration would not push for U.S. ratification of the accord.
"The Kyoto Protocol was a political agreement," said Harlan L. Watson, President Bush's senior climate negotiator and head of the U.S. delegation to the conference. "It was not based on science."
Watson, a physicist, is playing the role of spoilsport at the conference, enduring the private criticism of fellow delegates and the thinly veiled hostility of environmentalists who have come to the conference in large numbers as observers.
"I'm not sure why we are considered the 'bad boys,' " Watson said at a news conference last week. "We believe we match or exceed what any other country in the world is doing to address the issue."
Watson and other U.S. officials here point out that the Bush administration has set aside billions to fund climate research and weather-monitoring programs around the world.
In 2002, Bush committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 18% by 2012 but linked those reductions to growth in gross domestic product.
- City Urged to Go Own Way on Kyoto Protocol Jun 29, 2006
- Nations Agree to New Talks on Greenhouse Gas Limits Dec 11, 2005
- In Ratifying Climate Pact, EU Asks U.S. to Reconsider Jun 01, 2002
