GERMANY: March 19, 2008
BERLIN - The United States' resistance to international efforts to fight
climate change is linked to Europe's growing competitive advantage in the
renewable energies sector, Germany's deputy environment minister said on
Monday.
Michael Mueller said he believed that economic interests were playing an
increasingly important role in international negotiations aimed at reducing
emissions of greenhouses gases. Germany is a world leader in renewables
technology. "In the United States there is a growing recognition that
Europe's lead in renewable energies technology is a problem," Mueller told a
conference in Berlin, where substantial government backing has led to
flourishing renewable sectors.
"I think the United States' blockade can be traced to the fact that the
Americans are not as far along in this area as they should be," he added.
"There's an economic interest behind their blockade."
KYOTO PROTOCOL
The United States is the only developed nation outside the UN's Kyoto
Protocol after Australia's new Labour government signed up in December. US
President George W. Bush said Kyoto's caps on emissions of greenhouse gases
would cost jobs.
About 190 nations including the United States agreed at UN talks in Bali,
Indonesia, in December last year to launch two years of negotiations on a
new climate treaty to widen Kyoto with commitments from all nations,
including developing countries such as China and India.
In 2007, the International Energy Agency said the European Union generated
10 percent of all electricity from renewables such as hydro, biomass and
waste and other renewables in 2005.
That was twice as much as the 5 percent for electricity in the United
States. Mueller said Germany got a record 18 percent of its electricity in
February from renewable energy sources, up from 14 percent in 2007 due to
winds from winter storms. Germany had 6.2 percent of its electricity from
renewables in 2000.
"No other programme to fight climate change has been as successful as the
expansion of renewable energies," he said.
Story by Erik Kirschbaum
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
