Press release - 31 May, 2007
Greenpeace said today that US President Bush's new climate strategy was not even too little, too late, but a dangerous sham.
"Bush is clearly running scared on the issue of climate change
and of the huge public demand in the US and globally for urgent
action," said John Coequyt of Greenpeace USA.
"This is a slap in the face to one of the US's key allies,
Germany which has rightly made climate a central issue in the G8
this year and has put the emission cuts science demands into the
draft G8 communique. The US talk of a "new policy" is also a
desperate attempt to head off the start of international
negotiations on the next stage of emissions reductions after 2012;
it is a distraction from the real task of agreeing emission
reductions."
If Bush wants to act on climate change, the first thing he
should do is to put his own house in order by setting a cap on
carbon dioxide emissions and supporting a national renewable energy
standard. Bush does not have to start a new initiative to agree
targets with major emitters, he could simply agree to the targets
proposed for the G8 meeting next week. If he does not do that, the
other seven G8 members need to move forward without Bush.
A 50% cut in global emissions by 2050 compared to 1990 levels is
what science demands and will require industrialized countries to
cut their emissions by 30 percent by 2020 and 80-90 percent by
2050.
The place where the world agrees on the necessary climate
strategy is the United Nations. The United States should rejoin the
efforts under the Kyoto Protocol after 2009 rather than start new
processes now that will in any case not yield results before Bush
leaves office.
"Rather than be diverted by Bush, the seven Kyoto Protocol
members of the G8 should next week commit to radical emission cuts
and to concluding a binding agreement under the Kyoto Protocol by
2009 at the latest."
Other contacts: Daniel MittlerGreenpeace InternationalMobile +49 171 876 53 45
Exp. contact date: 2007-06-07 00:00:00