March 4, 2001
The world's top industrialized nations renewed a pledge to push ahead with a worldwide strategy to fight global warming Sunday, apparently overcoming doubts about the commitment of the United States. Environmental activists welcomed the final statement of the Trieste meeting, saying the United States' partners in the Group of Eight had sent Washington a clear message that there should be no backtracking from previous accords.
After two days of closed-door talks in the Italian port, environment ministers said they would aim to finalize a 1997 pact signed in Kyoto, Japan, on cutting pollution. No G8 country has yet ratified the Kyoto agreement. ``We commit ourselves... to strive to reach agreement on outstanding political issues and to ensure in a cost-effective manner the environmental integrity of the Kyoto Protocol,'' the ministers said in a formal declaration.
The future of the historic pact was thrown into doubt at a United Nations conference in The Hague in November, when developed nations failed to settle the rules on how countries should meet the pollution targets they agreed in 1997. The G8 statement said the top industrial countries would strive for an agreement when those talks resume in Bonn in July. ``A successful outcome at (Bonn) is necessary to allow early entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol. For most countries this means no later than 2002,'' the statement said.
The statement appeared to scotch any lingering doubts that the United States would turn its back on a pact that new President George W. Bush called unfair to America during his election campaign. The Hague talks sank because of differences between the European Union, which insists on a minimum level of cuts in the domestic pollution created by each country, and the United States, Canada, Japan, Russia and others which want maximum use of ``flexible mechanisms.''
The Trieste statement reiterated that countries should achieve the bulk of their emissions reductions through cuts at home, rather than by buying the right to pollute from other countries and via other flexible mechanisms. ``We commit to take the lead by strengthening and implementing national programs and actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,'' the G8 countries, which together produce more than half of the world's pollution, said.
The Kyoto protocol called for industrialized countries to cut their emissions of six gases, principally carbon dioxide, by an average 5.2 percent of 1990 levels by 2010. The United States agreed to cut emissions by 7.0 percent.
ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISTS PLEASED
Environmental activists said the statement was better than expected and that Christine Todd Whitman, head of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had provided a clear and welcome signal to G8 partners that Washington was serious about global warming. ``The bridge has been built among the world's greatest polluters to pave the way for the conclusion of the Kyoto Protocol this summer,'' said Jennifer Morgan, director of the World Wildlife Fund's Climate Change Campaign. ``Ministers have sent a clear message that they hear the warnings of scientists and are ready to act,'' she said.
A UN scientific panel has said the average global temperature is likely to rise by between 1.4 and 5.8 degrees Celsius (2.5-10.4 Fahrenheit) over the next 100 years. Such a change in temperature -- which many scientists believe is being caused by pollution trapping heat in the atmosphere -- would mean widespread droughts and floods and massive economic and natural damage, experts say. Sea levels could rise by as much as 88 cm (35 inches).
Feared violence by anti-globalization protesters failed to materialize in Trieste, perhaps because of a massive police presence. Saturday night demonstrators staged a loud but mostly peaceful protest, throwing colored smoke bombs and sending flares into the sky over the heads of security forces.
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