US rejects all proposals on climate change
 

Selfish, arrogant idiots... I hope Germany will stay firm and this leads to an enormous clash! And 20% is ridiculously negligable anyway.

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The US has rejected any prospect of a deal on climate change at the G8 summit in Germany next month, according to a leaked document.

Despite Tony Blair's declaration on Thursday that Washington would sign up to "at least the beginnings" of action to cut carbon emissions, a note attached to a draft document circulated by Germany says the US is "fundamentally opposed" to the proposals.

The note, written in red ink, says the deal "runs counter to our overall position and crosses multiple 'red lines' in terms of what we simply cannot agree to".

"This document is called FINAL but we never agreed to any of the climate language present in the document ... We have tried to 'tread lightly' but there is only so far we can go given our fundamental opposition to the German position," it says.

The tone is blunt, with whole pages of the draft crossed out and even the mildest statements about confirming previous agreements rejected. "The proposals within the sections titled 'Fighting Climate Change' and 'Carbon Markets' are fundamentally incompatible with the President's approach to climate change," says another red-ink comment.

This is embarrassing for Mr Blair, who said on Thursday with some confidence that the US was moderating its position on climate change as the summit approached. Before visiting the White House this month, the prime minister suggested that he was close to persuading George Bush to accept the establishment of carbon trading schemes, one of five main proposals drawn up ahead of the G8. But Washington rejected the sections on carbon trading, saying to back trading schemes would imply acceptance of emission caps.

A diplomatic source said the German EU presidency and the US government appeared now so far apart it was hard to see how negotiators could reach anything other than a meaningless agreement in Heiligendamm in just under two weeks.

As well as cutting global emissions, Germany had stated in its draft that it wanted agreement to curb the rise in average temperatures this century to 2C and raise energy efficiency in power and transport by 20% by 2020. Both positions are compatible with policies in California and other US states, which have set their own targets and timetables.

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, this week suggested that there was little hope of a deal. She said preliminary talks at the EU-Russia summit and in meetings with G8 members had been "difficult".

The director of Greenpeace, John Sauven, said the leaked document proved Britain had failed to influence the US. "Despite his protestations to the contrary Tony Blair's efforts to persuade George Bush of the importance of tackling climate change have singularly failed," he said.

The scene is set for a showdown between the US and other G8 countries who want early action on climate change. Germany's environment minister, Sigmar Gabriel, said the country was prepared to block decisions on other issues unless the US and other G8 members made concessions on the environment. "America doesn't want to commit to firm goals. We can't put the global future of our children at risk because of the narrow-mindedness of individual negotiating partners."



http://environment.guardian.co.uk/cl...088786,00.html

a good bye gift to the british pooch ... what a sucker that guy was ( and is ) ....

That's irrelevant.

As 12clicks posted in a previous thread about the metric system - "we're [the US] leaders".

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Come on now. All US government censorship of scientific data aside, who here thinks we really have any influence on the environment? Shiat... If I had mad backing of corp America, I'd sell my sister to their CEOs and let them drill for oil in my back yard.

Fuck yea!

Unfortunately it's nothing new Rhesus - never fails...

You are talking about a govt who have lodged more objections at the UN that almost all countries combined. Same with any treaty - ranging from the Convention on the Rights of the Child (US is the only country not to ratify this) to the Ottawa Treaty (tho not alone in that, but the largest exporter of arms in the world and with a vested interest in not limiting land mines).

Even the concept of an International Criminal Court for war crimes and human rights violations remains a problem (tho plenty excuses were presented).

No matter man - if the admin wants to go further into the closet, stick their heads in the sand and be isolated - that's their biz. But either way - there will be more related conferences/agreements/treaties and penality mechanisms eventually put in place covering all countries. The longer it takes to reach agreement, the more costly it is likely to be for non-players in the end. Kinda like the metric system again :pimp

The rest of the world is not smart enough to have a say in what the US will or will not do.
its no more complicated than than.

:thumbsup U.S. rules! U.S's wish is rest of the world's command :thumbsup

Unfortunately the rest of the world is progress regardless - it's that simple :pimp

now see, if the rest of the world could fool themselves like this, there would be no jealousy

The US is like a narrowminded child. Focused on $ and the short term only, not about cleaning up the environment for future generators, its sad.

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh You are funny in a droll way 12C :winkwink:

The idea that global warming is man made came from over seas for a reason. That reason is to stop countries from growing. What better way to get more of the market than to make up something like "global warming is man made?" Then wave their fatty fingers at the US saying stop building, stop making and so on :thumbsup

really? do you really believe that the US doesn't take massive steps to "clean up the environment"? You don't have any idea at all how much has been done since the 70's to "clean up the environment"

do you understand that there are massive economic and financial consequences to enacting such plans? do you understand that has to be taken into consideration as well as the plans implementation and isn't as simple as some other country saying "here... do this because we said so"?

you guys talk like you are 10 years old sometime.

Seriously? :pimp No... it does not take massive steps to clean up man. It's hard to even think that when the US has around 5% of world population but comsumes around 25% of resources. There is an obvious imbalance and this is bound to reflect on the economy at some point (tho suspect that is already happening).

An increasing number of countries have done a lot more to protect their environment - some were total crap 20 years ago and they have made massive progress in that time.

The new kid on the block is obviously going to be China - like the US, they talk about it and go thru motions of acting, but they also know they have no choice but to act and minimize problems. Time will tell on that :pimp

As an aside.. and noticed this fairly regularly :-) When you listen to US folks who have chosen to live elsewhere, one of the background reasons along with perceptions of lower crime etc (which may or may not be true), is that they think the environment is already screwed and they want to more to fresher pastures to raise their families. OK.. It's only a relatively small number of people... but interesting to hear their thoughts.

There is no us, in U.S. oh wait, shit, we're screwed.

the discussion is about plans to deal with climate change and its impact on industry... not a general agreement to pick up candy bar wrappers on the beach in Santa Monica

I'm really concerned about the wrappers on the beach in Santa Monica - I thought that was the reason for the G8 draft document??? No??? :pimp

just wait till 2008

we're rich, so what?
oh right, you're one of those who thinks communism works.

which communist country (or former communist country) is less polluted than the US again?:1orglaugh

Come on man. You clubbed some seals in your day and shit... Your views are apparent.

Fact is, the current administration sucks at environmental tasks.

The world needs a change; less people breeding, more environmental consciousness, blah blah blah.

I usually dig your posts, as they're witty, smart and usually spot on. Lately, though, you just come across as an old, sad, bitch during menopause. WTF's wrong man?

On drugs again?? :1orglaugh The hallucinations along with assumptions are obviously overpowering *LOL*

this kind of comeback doesn't work on the internet anymore.
when someone nails you for what you are, its best to just slink away, or just invent a new screen name (again)