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US defiant at Bali climate meeting

US climate negotiators refused to back down in their opposition to mandatory cuts in greenhouse gas emissions yesterday, even as a US Senate panel endorsed sharp reductions in pollution blamed for global warming.

The US, the world's largest producer of such gases, has resisted calls for strict limits on emissions at the UN climate conference, which is aimed at launching negotiations for an agreement to follow the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012.

The US climate stance suffered a blow when the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee passed a bill on Wednesday to cut US emissions by 70 percent by 2050 from electric power plants, manufacturing and transportation. The bill now goes to the full Senate.

US negotiator Harlan Watson, however, said that would not impact Washington's position in Bali.

"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."

The two-week conference, which opened on Monday, has broken into a tense standoff between two camps, with a majority supporting mandatory emissions cuts on one side, and opponents such as the US on the other, delegates said.

Scientists say the world must act quickly to slash greenhouse gas emissions and limit the rise in global temperatures or risk triggering devastating droughts and flooding, strangling world food production and killing off animal species.

Washington's isolation in Bali has increased following Australia's announcement on Monday that it had reversed its opposition to the Kyoto pact and started the ratification process -- winning applause at the conference's opening session. That left the US as the only industrialized nation to oppose the agreement.

The Australian delegation said yesterday Canberra supports a UN document that mentioned cutting greenhouse gas emissions by between 25 percent and 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. The government has already proposed 60 percent cuts by 2050.

However, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd refused yesterday to commit to the 2020 figures, saying it was premature to set firm targets before he receives a comprehensive report he has commissioned on the issue next year.

The US Senate action cheered environmentalists and others in Bali clamoring for dramatic action to stop global warming. UN climate chief Yvo de Boer led off his daily briefing yesterday by hailing the "encouraging sign" from the US.

"This is a very welcome development," Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists said of the Senate measure. "It shows the increasing isolation of the Bush administration in terms of US policy on this issue."

Further momentum for serious greenhouse gas cuts came from a petition released yesterday by a group of at least 215 climate scientists who urged the world to reduce emissions by half by 2050.

"We have to start reducing greenhouse gas emissions as soon as we possibly can," said Australian climatologist Matthew England, a group spokesman. "It needs action. We're talking about now."

Indonesian Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar said the mood in the closed-door negotiations was "serious, apprehensive," but that there were hopes the US would slowly change its stance.
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