A new US proposal that wanted to get away from international commitments
on reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and came up with national domestic
objectives instead could push the Bali climate negotiations in Indonesia to the
brink of failure, officials from the World Wide Fund (WWF) for Nature warned
today.
The US new proposal , which came an hour before midnight yesterday, would
eliminate language that called upon developed nations to consider specific,
internationally binding, quantified reduction commitments, replacing it with
text that calls upon countries to adopt any measures they deem appropriate, WWF
said in a press release.
"At the eleventh hour, the US has submitted a proposal that is the equivalent
of taking no action at all against climate change," WWF International Director
General James P Leape said. "This proposal would gut the international effort
towards halting climate change and put the future of our planet at risk."
"The Bush administration has a moral obligation to make commitments that are
commensurate with their contribution to the climate crisis," said WWF Global
Climate Change Director Hans Verolme. "The US government, aided by a small group
of nations including Canada and Japan, has over the last few days thrown up
several roadblocks in the negotiations," he said.
He added: "We are pleased that several large emerging economies, including
China, Brazil, and South Africa, are still showing flexibility and creativity in
their contributions to the Bali negotiations. That is the same spirit one would
hope we could expect from the US."
"With these actions, the US jeopardizes the agreements that have already been
reached on deforestation, technology and adaptation," he noted.
Yesterday evening, Al gore, Nobel Peace Prize co-laureate and former US vice
president, in a speech delivered here, also accused his own country, the United
States, of being "principally responsible" for blocking progress here toward an
agreement on launching negotiations to replace the Kyoto Protocol when it
expires in 2012.
WWF, a global environmental conservation organization, said more than 50
members of the US Congress from both parties wrote to US President George W.
Bush urging him to shift gears and play a constructive role in bringing these
negotiations to a productive close.
The Bali UN climate conference, which is due to end today, came to a deadlock
as the EU and the United States, Japan, Canada have disputed over a number of
goals in emissions in the final text for the Bali Roadmap, which will guide
negotiations on a new global climate deal before the Kyoto Protocol when expires
in 2012.
The EU favored a 25-40 percent deep emissions cut for rich countries by 2020,
while the United States said such a range would prejudge the outcome of the
negotiations.