US agrees to join talks on climate change: Kyoto pact extended beyond 2012
MONTREAL, Dec 10: Environment ministers agreed on Saturday to launch new, open-ended world talks on ways to fight climate change that will include Kyoto outsiders such as the United States and developing nations. Washington had long resisted taking part in the talks.
The ministers also agreed to a roadmap to extend the Kyoto Protocol climate pact beyond 2012, breaking two weeks of deadlock at UN talks aimed at curbing global warming.
“This is a watershed in the fight against climate change,” European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas told reporters of the accords after talks that dragged on till nearly dawn. The conference was attended by 10,000 delegates.
“There is still a harsh road in front of us,” Mr Dimas said about the long-term drive to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases released by burning fossil fuels and blamed for heating the atmosphere and oceans.
Environment activists cheered, hugged and some even cried after the delegates passed what they hailed as historic decisions to brake catastrophic changes ranging from desertification to rising sea levels.
“There were many potential points at this meeting when the world could have given up due to the tactics of the Bush administration and others but it did not,” said Jennifer Morgan, climate change expert at the WWF conservation group.
The United States, the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, pulled out of Kyoto in 2001, saying a fixation on emissions targets would harm economic growth, a view challenged on Friday in Montreal by former US president Bill Clinton.
WATERED DOWN: Washington agreed to join the open-ended dialogue only after Canada and the European Union watered down the text and spelled out that it would not lead to formal negotiations or commitments or the type of emissions caps enshrined in Kyoto.
“The text that was adopted recognizes the diversity of approaches,” said US climate negotiator Harlan Watson.
Washington favours voluntary measures and big investments in technology like hydrogen or carbon storage. Other countries are seeking to engage Washington for the long haul, hoping President George Bush’s successor will be less sceptical of UN-led action on the environment. —Reuters
