GLENEAGLES, Scotland — The Group of Eight
summit bowed to U.S. pressure on Friday by approving a declaration on climate
change that avoided taking any concrete steps to fight global warming, such as
setting targets or timetables for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The summit declined to embrace Prime Minister Tony Blair's proposal for promises
of sharp reductions of pollutants that scientists say cause global warming.
It also failed to resolve a long-standing impasse over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol,
which the Bush administration has rejected but which the other G-8 members have
ratified, binding them to reduction targets that are now in effect.
President Bush has questioned the existence of global warming, saying the
protocol would have "wrecked" the U.S. economy. He objects to the fact
that large developing nations such as China and India are exempt from it.
Blair, however, won a compromise at the G-8 summit by getting its members to
agree to a new round of international talks on climate change -- to be held in
Britain in November -- that will include wealthy nations and emerging economies.
French President Jacques Chirac, who has called global warming "a terribly
menacing reality," said Friday that the G-8 leaders had achieved
substantial results and that the agreement on climate change would ensure
"indispensable dialogue" among nations.
But many environmental groups called the summit a failure on global warming and
blamed it on the Bush administration.
"The G-8 leaders did not agree on a single concrete action to address
climate change," said Philip E. Clapp, president of the National
Environmental Trust. "President Bush did not budge one inch from the
intransigent position he has taken on global warming ... and the White House
staff worked nonstop for months to water any possible deal down."
Greenpeace said the G-8 communique "highlights the divisions between
President Bush and the rest of the world on tackling climate change."
In his final speech at the summit, Blair announced that the G-8 members and
other nations, including five of the world's largest emerging economies --
China, Brazil, India and South Africa -- had agreed to work together to deal
with the issue of global warming. He said they would meet on Nov. 1 in Britain
to discuss the effort to "slow down and then in time reverse the rise in
harmful greenhouse gas emissions."
On Thursday those five countries, which all attended the summit, issued a joint
statement endorsing the Kyoto Protocol and urging developed countries such as
the United States to "take the lead in international action to combat
climate change by fully implementing their obligations of reducing
emissions."
Source: Associated Press