THEY said it would be like negotiating with Exxon. And so it is proving. With
the redneck sultans of fossil fuel in charge at the White House, George W. Bush
has pulled back on even the hedged commitments to control emissions of
greenhouse gases that he made during his election campaign.
Last week, he announced that a new Clean Air Act would not, after all,
include controls on carbon dioxide. He blamed fears of rising fuel prices and
more blackouts, as well as pleading continuing scientific uncertainties about
climate change
(see 鈥淐arry on regardless鈥�).
Forget the excuses. Bush is doing the bidding of his funders and friends, and
the world be damned. His statement does not formally count the US out of the
Kyoto Protocol talks on cutting greenhouse gas emissions. But it does mean Bush
has vetoed use of the most effective mechanism for the US to meet its
promises.
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How serious a blow is this? Privately, American negotiators have been saying
for some time that it could already be too late for the US to meet its Kyoto
commitments for 2010, because of the time it would take to get a Clean Air Act
through Congress and into force. Now it鈥檚 clear that Bush isn鈥檛 even going to
try.
At least the rest of the world knows where it stands, and can stop the
elaborate game of trying to keep the US on board the climate train. True, the US
is responsible for a quarter of the world鈥檚 CO2 emissions, but that
still leaves the three-quarters that comes from everywhere else. The world can
get on with the task at hand鈥攕aving the planet鈥檚 climate鈥攁nd is
quite capable of implementing the Kyoto Protocol without the US.
What we need now is a series of declarations from governments that they will
do just that. And there should be a campaign to persuade large corporations,
including energy companies, to join in. Many companies realise that, as the BP
slogan has it, their future lies 鈥渂eyond petroleum鈥�. And the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change reports that new sources of energy are advancing
technically and becoming economically competitive faster than most people
predicted. The world should embrace them, and leave the US to cower in its
bunkers of coal and oil until it sees sense.
