Bush has new climate plan
2007-05-31 19:32
Washington - US President George W Bush said on Thursday he would urge major industrialised nations at a summit next week to join a new global framework for fighting climate change after the Kyoto Protocol lapses.
"The United States will work with other nations to establish a new framework on greenhouse gas emissions for when the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012," he said in a speech laying out his agenda for the June 6-8 G8 summit in Germany.
Bush, weighed down by the Iraq war and facing European criticisms over the US approach to global warming, also urged rich countries to eliminate barriers poor countries face to getting new environment-friendly technologies by 2008.
"If you're truly committed to helping the environment, nations need to get rid of their tariffs, need to get rid of those barriers that prevent new technologies from coming into their countries," he said.
Consultation
"My proposal is this: By the end of next year, America and other nations will set a long-term global goal for reducing greenhouse gases in consultation with major greenhouse gas-producing nations, including fast-growing India and China, and industry leaders."
Countries would also set "mid-term national targets and programmes" depending on "their own mix of energy sources and future energy needs", he said, adding that there would be a "strong and transparent" method to assess progress in reaching the non-binding targets.
"It's important to assure that we get results," said Bush, who made the initiative a key goal of his talks next week with leaders from Europe, where critics have accused Washington of dragging its feet on climate change.
The US president said he would push G8 leaders to boost investment in research and development of environment-friendly technologies, and would help poor countries acquire such cutting-edge science.
Clean energy technologies
"We're also going to work to conclude talks with other nations on eliminating tariffs and other barriers to clean energy technologies and services by the end of this year," he said.
"We'll help the world's poorest nations reduce emissions by giving them government-developed technologies at low cost or in some case no cost at all," said Bush.