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Green groups tag US, Saudi Arabia as worst offenders

The US and Saudi Arabia are the world's worst "climate sinners," environmental groups said yesterday, citing the two countries' high and mounting greenhouse gas emissions and inadequate government policies to combat global warming.

Australia was ranked third, but with a caveat: If its decision to sign the Kyoto Protocol is followed up with action, it would quickly fall down the ladder.

"The international community is still failing to comply with their responsibilities regarding climate protection," said Matthias Duwe of the Climate Action Network-Europe, which released the data at the UN conference in Bali yesterday. "They have not set themselves firmly on the path of limiting global warming."

Delegates from nearly 190 nations are attending the two-week gathering, charged with launching negotiations that will eventually lead to an international accord to succeed the Kyoto pact, which expires in 2012.

Environmentalists released their annual index ranking 56 industrialized and emerging countries, which together account for more than 90 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. The calculations, performed by the group Germanwatch, took into account pollution levels and trends, as well as overall climate policy.

Surprisingly China -- which some experts believe has already surpassed the US as the world's top emitter of climate-changing gases -- was recognized for improvements made over the last two years, most notably to enhance energy efficiency and promote renewable energy. It went from being the 14th worst offender to the 17th one year ago.

"China's relatively positive political assessment gives hope that emission growth will slow down in the future," said Christoph Bals, executive policy director of Germanwatch.

Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, was the biggest "climate sinner" for the second year in a row, because its emissions are growing and it has no firm policies to address that, the group said. It has a long history of playing an obstructionist role at climate conferences.

The US, the only major industrialized country not to have signed Kyoto, followed directly behind.

Sweden was doing the best job, but even it could improve, the environmentalists said. It was followed by Germany, Iceland and Mexico.

Meanwhile, Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Convention on Climate Change, said the conference was unlikely to win any binding pledge by the US to cut missions, and that developing nations were also likely to refuse to commit to mandatory targets on cutting emissions.

He insisted talks had started "very enthusiastically," but at the same time acknowledged the deep divides within the international community on how to tackle the problem of the world heating up.

"I think all the delegations have understood the urgency, but I also think that none of the delegations have forgotten their national interest," he said on the sidelines of the meeting.
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