Bush seeks climate change talks

U.S. President George W. Bush, seeking to blunt international criticism of the American record on climate change, yesterday urged Canada and 14 other major nations to agree by the end of next year on a global target for reducing greenhouse gases.

Bush called for a series of meetings to begin this fall, bringing together countries identified as major emitters of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

But critics in Ottawa and Washington called Bush's plan a sham, and said those on the invitation list should decline.

"This is a transparent effort to divert attention from (Bush's) refusal to accept any emissions reductions proposals at next week's G8 summit," said Philip Clapp, president of the Washington-based National Environmental Trust.

"After sitting out talks on global warming for years, the Bush administration doesn't have very much credibility with other governments on the issue."

Bush "is not being serious," said John Bennett, of Ottawa-based Climate for Change.

His call to set targets "is another case of double speak" and "an attempt to undermine 20 years of United Nations negotiations on climate change."

Canada should stay with the UN plan and encourage other nations to do the same, Bennett said.

Canada hasn't decided whether to attend, said Mike Van Soelen, a spokesperson for Environment Minister John Baird.

"I don't know that," Van Soelen replied when the Star's Catherine Porter asked whether Canada would participate.

"I don't think you're going to find that out today. That was just announced today. We'll get all the information and make a decision in due course."

Bush outlined his proposal in a speech ahead of next week's summit in Germany of the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations, where global warming is to be a major topic.

"The United States will work with other nations to establish a new framework for greenhouse gas emissions for when the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012," the president said.

The list would include China, India, major European countries and Canada.

"So my proposal is this," Bush continued. "By the end of next year, America and other nations will set a long-term global goal for reducing greenhouse gases.

To develop this goal, the United States will convene a series of meetings of nations that produce the most greenhouse gases, including nations with rapidly growing economies like India and China."

After setting a goal, the nations would be free to develop their own strategies to meet the target.

The United States has refused to ratify the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which requires industrialized countries to reduce greenhouse gases to about 6 per cent below 1990 levels by 2012.

Developing countries, including China and India, were exempted from that first round of cuts.

Bush has also rejected the latest German proposal for what happens after 2012. It calls for an emission cut to 50 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050.

Yesterday, the leaders of Britain and Germany, who have been critical of the U.S. approach, welcomed Bush's plan.

"I think it is positive, and the U.S. president's speech makes it clear that no one can avoid the question of global warming anymore," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in Berlin.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair called the Bush proposal "a big step forward."