Bush Seeks New Image on
Global Warming

But Not Policy

JOHN HEILPRIN / AP 29sep2007

[More on Bush and global warming]

WASHINGTON — Myth: The president refuses to admit that climate change is real and that humans are a factor. 

Myth: The U.S. is doing nothing to address climate change. 

Myth: The United States refuses to engage internationally.

So begins a hand-sized handout, easy for reporters to pocket, issued at the State Department where President Bush on Friday was to cap two days of talks at a White House-sponsored climate change conference that is as much about salesmanship as it is about diplomacy.

Unwilling to cut U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases, which make up a fourth of the world's total output, Bush is turning to China, India and the other biggest polluters to swap green technology and other voluntary ways of doing something about global warming.

His administration also has set about creating a process for more such talks and a possible long-term global goal for reducing emissions, with each nation permitted to draw up its own strategies and plans.

Representatives from among the gathering of 16 nations, along with the European Union and the United Nations, expressed skepticism that not much more than talking and political goals might be accomplished, but also optimism that at least the United States was willing to become part of such talks.

Until recently, said Emil Salim, an economist and member of the Indonesian president's council of advisers, Bush offered "no dialogue on the Kyoto Protocol whatsoever. This time, the members of the Kyoto Protocol are invited to discuss. So from that point of view, there is some improvement," he said in an interview. "But on the other hand, I think it has more to do with the domestic politics, because you have election."

Though Bush rejected the Kyoto Protocol, the U.N.-brokered international treaty intended to cut greenhouse gas emissions that is due to expire in 2012, he is seeking ideas for what should come next. Critics have said they fear he might use his talks to undermine the next round of negotiations in December in Bali, Indonesia.

But on Thursday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson countered that the United States is serious about global warming and making progress to slow its growth rate in carbon dioxide and other industrial warming gases.

"I want to stress that the United States takes climate change very seriously, for we are both a major economy and a major emitter," Rice said. "Climate change is a global problem and we are contributing to it, therefore we are prepared to expand our leadership to address the challenge. That is why President Bush has convened this meeting."

They also gave reassurances that the U.S. intent is to contribute to the U.N. negotiations on climate change, even though those emphasize mandatory controls on carbon dioxide that Bush opposes. Bush rejected the Kyoto accord because he said it unfairly harmed the economies of rich nations like the United States and excluded developing nations like China and India from having to cut greenhouse gases.

"We want this year's U.N. climate change conference in Indonesia to succeed," Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said.

Bush's two-day conference, ending Friday, followed a U.N. meeting Monday at which Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon tried to build support among 80 world leaders for reaching agreement at the planned December talks. Other participants at the State Department conference were from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada, Brazil, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Australia and South Africa.

The meeting Thursday also drew about 70 demonstrators from Greenpeace and other environmental groups outside the State Department, where dozens were arrested for refusing to leave the premises after two hours of protest. The activists labeled the conference a fraud for not backing mandatory cuts in greenhouse gases.

The Bush administration proposes new "processes" and work teams for negotiating solutions. However, James Connaughton, who heads the White House Council on Environmental Quality, told the nations' representatives that their efforts must "be about more than presentations" and that "we need to take collective action to advance new technologies."

Yvo de Boer, the top U.N. climate official, told the 16 nations participating in the White House-led meeting that "this relatively small group of countries holds a key to tackling a big part of the problem" but that their response can succeed only by "going well beyond present efforts," especially among rich, industrialized nations.

source: 2oct2007

On Warming, Bush Vows
U.S. 'Will Do Its Part'

Critics Praise Attention But Call Ideas Lacking

PETER BAKER & JULIET EILPERIN / Washington Post 29sep2007

President Bush assured the rest of the world yesterday that he takes the threat of climate change seriously and vowed that the United States "will do its part" to reduce the greenhouse gases that are warming the planet, but he proposed no concrete new initiatives to reach that goal.

The president's speech at a conference of major economic powers represented a symbolic turn for a leader who once expressed doubt about global warming and angered foreign partners by renouncing the Kyoto treaty. After nearly seven years on the defensive, Bush tried to assume a leadership role in crafting "a new international approach" to preserving the world's climate.

Yet he found himself largely isolated at a meeting that he had organized to address the issue, lambasted by foreign officials, U.S. lawmakers and environmental activists who saw his effort as more show than substance. Although critics welcomed his newfound attention to the dangers of shifting climatological conditions, they complained that it would not add up to anything unless he reverses himself and embraces some form of mandatory limit on emissions, something he did not do yesterday.

Instead, he touted technology as the ultimate solution, citing ideas he has promoted for years, such as cleaner coal production; more nuclear, solar and wind power; additional ethanol as a substitute for gasoline; and increased vehicle fuel-efficiency standards. "I want to get the job done," he told hundreds of envoys, lobbyists and activists. "We have identified a problem. Let's go solve it together."

Bush said he wants to forge an agreement with other heads of state by next summer setting a long-term goal for reducing emissions, but each nation would decide how to meet it. "By setting this goal, we acknowledge there is a problem," he said. "And by setting this goal, we commit ourselves to doing something about it."

The much-anticipated speech disappointed critics looking for more tangible proposals. Daniel J. Weiss, an analyst at the liberal Center for American Progress, said Bush essentially was relying "on waving a magic technology wand" with measures that "won't make a dent in global warming." John Passacantando, executive director of Greenpeace USA, said Bush's speech underscored "his do-nothing approach to global warming" and proved that "his position is a lie" that no one believes.

"The president says his goals are aspirational, but his goals are really procrastinational," said Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of a new House committee on global warming. "The U.N. is saying the planet is urgently sick, and the Bush administration is saying, 'Take two aspirin and call me when I leave office.' "

Everton Vargas, the head of Brazil's delegation, said Bush "didn't bring any new ideas, any new proposals [to] the U.S. position. What we saw was more of a reiteration of what we have heard before." John Ashton, Britain's special representative for climate change, said "what has emerged at this conference, and also at the United Nations, is how isolated the administration is now on this issue, especially on the issue of mandatory targets."

Some delegates said they must turn to Congress for leadership. Environmental Defense President Fred Krupp drew extended applause at the conference when he called for a mandatory U.S. limit on carbon dioxide emissions. "The delegates came with all eyes towards the United States to see if there's movement, and they found out there is movement — it's in Congress," he said.

Delegates plotted climate strategy with lawmakers, with European delegates urging senators to pass a cap-and-trade system before U.S. climate talks open in Bali, Indonesia, in December. Markey and Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) plan to lead congressional delegations to the Bali talks.

The conference represented the most serious effort Bush has made to play an international leadership role on climate change. As a candidate in 2000, he expressed doubt that human activity was responsible for global warming. After taking office, he renounced the Kyoto treaty and broke a campaign promise to impose mandatory reductions in power plants' carbon dioxide emissions. Since then, his views have evolved to the point where now, nearly seven years into his presidency, he has decided to make a major push to find an international agreement to replace Kyoto when it expires in 2012.

The two-day White House conference that ended yesterday brought in envoys from 15 other major polluting nations, including European powers, Japan, Russia, Canada, Australia and South Africa. Especially important was the participation of China and India, the world's most populous nations, which were exempt from Kyoto although they produce increasing amounts of greenhouse gases.

Bush cited their exemption when he repudiated Kyoto, saying that any real solution had to include such large economies and expressing concern about the impact on the U.S. economy. Still, a study released this week by Duke University researchers underscored the singular role of the United States, concluding that it will have to account for one-third of the world's greenhouse gas reductions by 2050 to avoid dangerous climate change.

In his address yesterday, Bush said warming can be addressed without jeopardizing economic prosperity and called climate change and energy security "two of the great challenges of our times." No longer, he said, are those two priorities mutually exclusive: "Today we know better. These challenges share a common solution — technology."

The president's talk was more a defense of his record than a specific roadmap for the future. Other than a new fund to finance clean energy projects in developing countries, he announced no new initiatives. Instead, he touted the $18 billion he has devoted to developing new technology and his plan to reduce the projected use of gasoline in the United States by 20 percent in 10 years through alternative fuels and increased fuel efficiency.

If nothing else, Bush's language represented a stark change from seven years ago. "Our understanding of climate change has come a long way," he said, citing a report that concluded that rising global temperatures are "caused largely by human activities."

source: 2oct2007