[NYTr] Env: US on Defensive at Climate Conference

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

AP - Dec 6, 2007
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BALI_US_UNDER_SIEGE?SITE=NYWNE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

US on Defensive at Climate Conference

By JOSEPH COLEMAN
Associated Press Writer

BALI, Indonesia (AP) -- First Australia won international applause for
abandoning the United States and signing a global warming pact
Washington has long opposed. Then a U.S. Senate committee voted for
deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

The Bush administration's position, that technology, private investment
and economic growth - rather than mandatory emissions cuts - will save
the planet from global warming, is taking a beating this week at a U.N.
climate change conference in Indonesia.

The public defeats for the U.S. stance, coupled with mounting warnings
from scientists and others that only decisive action will control
rising temperatures, have cast the Americans as wayward sons who need
to wake up and join the rest of the world.

"I think the United States will be judicious enough to accept the
changes of atmosphere," said Indonesian Environment Minister Rachmat
Witoelar, the host of the conference. "I don't think we should pressure
them. They will come by themselves."

A lot is at stake. The conference in Bali is charged with launching
negotiations that will eventually lead to an international accord to
succeed the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on global warming.

Kyoto, which was rejected by the Bush administration, commits three
dozen industrialized countries to cut their greenhouse gases an average
of 5 percent below 1990 levels between next year and 2012, when it
expires.

The U.S. mission arrived at Bali with the goal of blocking Kyoto-like
mandatory cut targets from getting into the new agreement, while many
other countries came to Indonesia in hopes of coming up with a deal the
Americans would participate in.

But Washington has seen its hand steadily weakened in the first few
days of the two-week conference.

First, newly installed Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd reversed
his country's long-standing policy by signing the Kyoto pact Monday,
leaving the United States as the only major industrialized country to
reject the agreement. Rudd called on the U.S. to follow his lead, and
the Australian delegation basked in applause and accolades at the
opening of the conference in Bali.

The next blow came from a domestic source: Congress. The Senate
Environment and Public Works Committee passed a bill Wednesday to cut
U.S. emissions by 70 percent by 2050 from electric power plants,
manufacturing and transportation, defying the administration's
opposition to mandatory caps.

The bill now goes to the full Senate. While President Bush is expected
to veto it if it reaches his desk, the Wednesday vote cheered
environmentalists and others who have argued the Bush administration is
seriously out of step with the U.S. public's serious concerns about
global warming and willingness to do something about it.

"It does show the seriousness of the U.S. Congress in addressing with
these issues, and really sends a positive signal to developing nations
in particular that the United States Congress is not going to sit idly
by," said David Waskow, of the Oxfam humanitarian agency. "That is
quite distinct from ... the Bush administration."

That has left the U.S. delegation in Bali struggling to put a positive
spin on events.

U.S. climate chief Harlan Watson opened the American's two briefings
this week by outlining how Washington is fighting global warming its
own way, with technology, aid and economic growth. He has denied the
U.S. feels isolated.

The Bush administration says imposing mandatory emissions cuts will
harm economic growth, and favors individual countries setting their own
goals instead. Washington also backs private sector initiatives to
develop energy-saving technology and alternative energy sources, such
as ethanol and other biofuels. It also says industry should devise ways
to burn coal and other fossil fuels more cleanly.

On Thursday, Watson was adamant the Bush administration would stick to
its guns, no matter what Australia or the Senate did.

"In our process, a vote for movement of a bill out of committee does
not ensure its ultimate passage," he told reporters. "I don't know the
details, but we will not alter our posture here."

In addition to the setbacks, the U.S. has been faced with a drumbeat of
scientific reports demonstrating the world needs to limit the increase
in global temperatures to 3.6 degrees above what they were before the
world industrialized and started spewing greenhouse gases into the
atmosphere, or face the worst environmental, social and economic impact
of climate change.

Still, conference delegates recognize a deal without the United States
is meaningless.

The U.S. is the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and is
home to the globe's largest economy. Robust participation by Washington
in a climate accord puts enormous resources at the disposal of the
anti-global warming fight.

While welcoming both the Australian change of heart on Kyoto and the
Senate moves in the U.S., U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer did not use
the developments to taunt Washington. Instead, he told reporters
delegates would have to deal with the Bush administration no matter
what - at least until 2009.

"That's a very encouraging sign from the United States," de Boer said
of the Senate vote. But "for us, as an intergovernmental process, we're
most interested in the views of the government of the day."

© 2007 The Associated Press.