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US objects to declaration on climate change: report

The US has raised new serious objections to a proposed global warming declaration prepared by Germany for next month's G8 summit, the Washington Post reported yesterday.

Citing documents obtained by the newspaper, the report said officials representing the administration of US President George W. Bush rejected the idea of setting mandatory emissions targets as well as language calling for G8 nations to raise overall energy efficiencies by 20 percent by 2020.

With less than two weeks remaining before the summit from June 6 to June 8, the climate document is the only unresolved issue in the statements the world leaders are expected to sign there, said the report, citing sources close to the talks.

Representatives from the world's leading industrial nations met the past two days in Heiligendamm, Germany, to negotiate over German Chancellor Angela Merkel's proposed climate statement.

It calls for limiting the global temperature rise this century to 2oC and cutting global greenhouse gas emissions to 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

"The US still has serious, fundamental concerns about this draft statement," the Post quoted a document dated May 14 as saying.

"The treatment of climate change runs counter to our overall position and crosses multiple 'red lines' in terms of what we simply cannot agree to... We have tried to `tread lightly,' but there is only so far we can go given our fundamental opposition to the German position," the document read.

The most recent draft, dated May 24, shows that the two sides still remain at odds, the paper said.

While Germany has offered to alter language identifying a rise in global temperature of 2oC as a dangerous tipping point and instead to accept a Russian proposal that targets a range from 1.5oC to 2.5oC, the US has yet to accept the modified language.

The Post said that the US also remains opposed to a statement that reads, "We acknowledge that the UN climate process is an appropriate forum for negotiating future global action on climate change."

Senior US lawmakers have expressed deep concern in a letter to US President George W. Bush over reports the US seeks to weaken a G8 declaration on climate change.

"We are deeply concerned about reports that the US is seeking to weaken a proposed G8 declaration regarding global climate change," said their letter to Bush, dated May 18.

"This is a disappointing retreat after finally acknowledging the urgency of the issue just last month," the lawmakers said.

"US leadership is critical to tackling this global threat ... But we need an executive branch that engages the rest of the world to solve this problem rather than stubbornly ignoring it."

They said the G8 summit "should be an opportunity to galvanize international support for addressing this looming threat, not an opportunity to prevent and undermine international action."
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