(9 Dec 1997) English/Nat
The United States, in intense negotiations for a new climate agreement, offered on Tuesday to increase cuts in gas emissions.
European delegates said the U-S team offered a two per cent deeper cut than previously envisioned in the Clinton plan, which proposed reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2012.
With the United States showing increased flexibility, delegates from 150 nations are racing against the clock, hoping to craft an historic treaty to curtail greenhouse emissions.
But persuading developing countries to commit to limiting emissions could prove a difficult task.
Early morning in Kyoto, Japan, and the start of the most important day of the conference on climate change.
American and European Union negotiators had burned the midnight oil the night before to try to reach a compromise on their positions, to ensure pollution levels are contained for the future of the world's children.
Given a freer hand by the White House, U-S negotiators reported progress earlier on Tuesday in the final intensive talks to piece together an historic accord to control energy use and protect the planet against global warming in the 21st century.
The European Union generally favors a more aggressive approach to the greenhouse problem than the United States, which seeks more modest measures.
But even if the U-S-European differences are bridged, the U-S team must still nail down another major feature - commitments by developing countries to limit emissions - to improve chances the agreement will be ratified in the U-S Senate.
This may prove a difficult task.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Because of our total dependence on fossil fuels for our energy
needs our carbon dioxide emissions will inevitably continue to
increase as our economy develops and our population grows. Mr
President, as a developing country Singapore is not obligated under
the convention to set emission control targets."
SUPER CAPTION: Yeo Cheow Tong, Singapore Environment minister
The reluctance of some industrial nations to make bold cuts in emissions themselves has drawn criticism - and could serve as a disincentive to developed nations to make .
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Those countries with a historical responsibility for polluting our atmosphere remain reluctant to keep their promises because they claim the economic price is too high. In reality we know it is because they are unwilling to moderate their excessive consumption and their
wasteful lifestyles."
SUPER CAPTION: Law Hieng Lindh, Malaysian Environment minister
But some developing nations believe that to ignore the effects of gas emissions would be foolish.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"We will be affected by climate change, indeed we are already
affected by it, by sea level rise that will endanger many of our islands and coastal areas. But the severity and unpredictability of weather
events that result from it, by the risk it poses to food supply, it is therefore foolish for us to say that we will not do something about climate change."
SUPER CAPTION: Victor Ramos, Philippines Environment Minister
In two years of pre-Kyoto negotiations, poorer countries have been exempted from prospective mandatory cutbacks, since the atmosphere's carbon accumulation is historically the responsibility of the industrial North.
A U-S Senate resolution passed unanimously last July threatened to block any protocol that does not include binding commitments for key Third World countries, meaning such big "emitters" as China.
The developing country issue may turn out to be the last and toughest.
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