Brussels, 21/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - The US Climate Policy Plan, criticised by Environment Commissioner Margot Wallström after President Bush's presentation of the plan (see EUROPE of 16 February, p.10), has since been the subject of a joint statement from the Commission and from Jaume Matas, President of the Environment Council. The statement expresses the Union's concerns about the ineffectiveness of measures that establish a link between the rise in greenhouse gas emissions and the growth of GDP across the Atlantic.
"It is clear that the proposals for US action on climate change are purely domestic. But the EU is concerned that they will not even be sufficient to reduce US emissions. The intensity target proposes allows for further increases in absolute emissions and is not sufficient to fight climate change effectively. In contrast, the Kyoto Protocol requires most industrialised countries to achieve absolute emission reductions while they still expect economic growth".
Ms Wallström and Mr Matas also stress that: 1) with such a plan, the United States will not even keep to the objective of stabilising emissions at the 1990 level aimed at by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, although the US did subscribe to this; 2) as the intensity of greenhouse gas emissions compared to US GDP had in the past recorded a downward fall, the American plan is hardly more than a clearance for "business as usual"; 3) the effectiveness of measures is all the more subject to caution as the measures are purely voluntary, they do not cover the trading of CO2 emissions from electricity generating plants (the Union, for its pat, plans to reduce its CO2 emissions by 46% by 2010 through this flexible mechanism), and as these measures will not be introduced before 2012; 4) the participation of US economic players in controlling emissions is a good thing, on condition that control is compulsory and that the companies issue regular reports on their emissions level. It is only on such a condition that it will be possible to assess whether the Bush Plan represents an effort comparable to that required by the Kyoto Protocol, states the Union.
Greenpeace states US plan is dictated by the interests of oil companies
In a press release, Greenpeace states that the implementation of the American plan will lead to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions at a level which exceeds the Kyoto Protocol by 36%. "Under this plan, carbon dioxide emissions will increase even faster than in the last five years and this policy will do nothing to help stabilise long term greenhouse gas concentrations as promised", states Benedict Southworth, expert on climate change. She accuses the US policy of being dictated by the oil giant Exxon Mobil. She considers that "the policy links emissions to economic growth, a move which ensures that only a prolonged economic recession will actually reduce CO2 emissions. Official US predictions for GDP growth throughout the next decade are about 3.1%".
Greenpeace deplores the fact that, as the United States is the world's biggest greenhouse polluter, responsible for 25% of global greenhouse gas emissions, the new policy widens the gulf between the US and the rest of the world.