Bush Seeks New International Framework on Climate Change

G8 summit set to fall short of fixed targets on climate change

HEILIGENDAMM, Germany, June 6 - No fixed targets to fight global warming will come out of the Group of Eight (G8) summit as the United States and Germany remain far apart on the issue, reports said Wednesday.

Washington and Berlin have apparently failed to agree on fixed targets in the fight against global warming at talks ahead of the G8 summit, the German press service DPA said.

Germany, this year's G8 president nation which is hosting leaders from the world's main industrial countries in its northern seaside resort of Heiligendamm, has been pushing hard for firm targets on climate change.

Under Germany's proposal, the world's big players should commit themselves to limiting the rise of global temperature to 2 degrees Celsius this century and cutting carbon emissions by 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

However, the United States, the world's biggest greenhouse gas producer, voiced "fundamental opposition" to the German proposal, making climate change one of the most controversial issues ahead of the G8 summit, which is scheduled to start on Wednesday evening.

Shortly before the summit, U.S. President George W. Bush announced a separate plan, calling on 15 of the world's biggest greenhouse emitters to meet and agree on long-term goals by the end of 2008.

The United States, which has not signed the Kyoto Protocol, remains opposed to mandatory targets, citing that environmental protection cannot come at the price of hurting economic growth.

The summit would end without an agreement on determined goals in the fight against global warming, James Connaughton, the U.S. President George W. Bush's chief environmental adviser, told DPA.

Connaughton said each country had to set its own targets, a view shared by other G8 members, such as Japan and Canada.

31 May 2007

Washington – The United States will work with other countries to establish a new international framework to address global climate change once the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

Under an initiative unveiled May 31 by President Bush, 10 to 15 countries that consume the most energy and emit the largest quantities of greenhouse gases would discuss a post-Kyoto arrangement at international meetings convened initially by the United States.

By 2009, at the end of the first phase, the countries would set a long-term global goal for reducing emissions that contribute to global climate change and establish related national mid-term energy security and environmental goals and strategies based on the nations’ individual characteristics.

Bush said a strong and transparent system for measuring countries’ performance must be an essential element of the new plan.

Under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, industrialized countries committed to make specific cuts in emissions of gases such as carbon dioxide that contribute to global warming. The cuts are made primarily through a “cap-and-trade” mechanism in which nations set industry caps on emissions and then allow emitters to buy or sell emissions credits to meet targets.

The United States has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol, which it believes can constrain economic growth and will achieve little because it does not include countries in the developing world such as China and India that emit large quantities of greenhouse gases.

The U.S. initiative aims to complement broader international discussions under the auspices of the United Nations on a replacement for the Kyoto agreement, according to U.S. officials.

The president launched his climate change initiative roughly a week ahead of the June 6-8 Summit of Group of Eight (G8) countries in Germany where global climate change is expected to be among major topics discussed. The G8 comprises Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and Russia.

“The United States takes this issue seriously,” Bush said. He said the global community can meet the double challenge of energy security and climate change through technology. The United States has been in the forefront in technology development, investing more than $12 billion over the past six years in research on clean-energy technology, according to official U.S. sources.

But more needs to be done worldwide to bring technology up to a level capable of meeting the global challenge, the president said. Bush said he will encourage other G8 leaders to increase investment in clean energy research and discuss with them measures to promote such investment in developing countries.

To facilitate a large-scale transfer of technologies to countries where they are most needed, the president proposed to conclude by the end of 2007 talks on eliminating tariffs and other barriers to trade in clean-energy technologies and services. This effort would be part of the Doha round of global trade negotiations conducted under the auspices of the World Trade Organization.

In addition, Bush said, “we’ll help the world’s poorest nations reduce emissions by giving them government-developed technologies at low cost or, in some cases, no cost at all.”

Questions:

1. What is Germany’s proposal for targets on climate change?

2. What was the US reaction to the proposal? Which plan did George Bush announce a week before the summit?

3. Explain what the “cap-and-trade” mechanism mean.

4. Why hasn’t the US still ratified the Protocol?

5. Which other important problem is climate change closely tied with in Bush’s opinion? What can help solve both problems?

6. Don’t you think that Bush’s approach implies to blame emerging countries for greenhouse gases emissions?

8. Language Exercises:

I. Fill in the gaps with the most appropriate words.

Дата добавления: 2014-11-16