October 31, 1997
Bonn, Germany -- Negotiators from more than 150 countries leave Bonn
today after two weeks of talks which have set back efforts to prevent
climate change.
With only 30 days until the Kyoto climate summit, WWF believes that the
key to agreement now rests with President Clinton showing himself to be
the "Houdini of climate change" and escaping from the grip of American
oil and coal interests. As the impacts of climate change become
increasingly evident in the United States and around the world,
agreement by the US to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions below 1990
levels by 2005 is the main escape route for salvaging the current talks.
In addition to suggesting that existing emission stabilization targets
agreed for the year 2000 should be put off until as late as 2012, the US
is pressing for a variety of "flexible" mechanisms intended to allow its
emissions to increase. This threatens to lock the world into dangerous
levels of climate change, something which governments are pledged to
avoid under the terms of the UN Climate Convention.
The howls of international condemnation that greeted President Clinton's
22 October announcement of the US position on climate change signal
that his chance of making his mark on history as the leader who
confronted the world's biggest-ever environmental challenge now hangs
in the balance.
"Why America continues to ignore the significant industrial opportunities
which can be opened up by more progressive, cost-effective targets for
cutting carbon dioxide emissions is a complete mystery" said Andrew
Kerr, European Co-ordinator of WWF's Climate Change Campaign. "Is the
American Dream going to turn into everybody's environmental
nightmare?"
The European Union, among industrialized countries, has tabled the only
decent proposal for cuts in emissions of at least 7.5% by 2005 and 15%
by 2010. The EU has shown how it could exceed its target for 2010 with
policies which are "technically feasible", at the same time yielding
benefits that would more than likely outweigh the costs of
implementation. More ambitious reductions would produce net economic
benefits for the US, according to a newly-released study conducted for
WWF by the Tellus Institute, Boston, Massachusetts.
For more information, contact:
Andrew Kerr, WWF Climate Change Campaign, tel: +49 171 900 4055
Lars Georg Jensen, WWF Climate Change Policy Co-ordinator, tel: +45 40
42 35 09
*WWF is known as the World Wildlife Fund in the United States and
Canada, and as the World Wide Fund For Nature outside of North
America.