US changing 'climate attitude'

2007-08-30 16:02

Tokyo - The United States has become more involved in the fight against global warming in the wake of Hurricane Katrina's devastation, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday.

Merkel, who has made climate change a key focus of the German presidency of the Group of Eight industrial nations, said the US had "changed its attitude on climate change" in the decade since the landmark Kyoto Protocol was reached.

"I think the Americans have began thinking about the issue seriously as it was hit bitterly by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans," Merkel said on a visit to Japan marking 10 years since the accord was negotiated in the ancient city of Kyoto.

"There are plenty of factors regarding how the hurricane was generated but one factor might be the rise of temperatures due to global climate change," she told a forum in Tokyo.

The US is this week marking two years since Katrina, which battered New Orleans and left 1 500 people dead across the Gulf Coast.

US negotiators were part of the Kyoto Protocol negotiations but Congress refused to ratify it.

President George W Bush pulled the US out of Kyoto as one of his first acts in office in 2001, saying it was unfair as it made no demands of fast-growing emerging economies such as China and India.

But Merkel said the US was also looking ahead to a framework after Kyoto, which expires in 2012.

"Probably the Americans realised that unless they take measures on climate change, neither China nor India will move," Merkel said.

Merkel hosted the last Group of Eight summit in June which set a non-binding goal of halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

- AFP