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160 Nations Agree to a New Global Warming Treaty
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Carbon dioxide emissions, the chief cause of global warming, were nearly 14 percent higher than in 1990, according to the department's Energy Information Administration.
The Bush administration opposes the treaty, saying it would harm the U.S. economy while exempting developing countries, including India and China, from mandatory emissions targets. Instead, the White House has advocated spending more for scientific research, incentives for developing new technology to reduce emissions and other voluntary or market-based incentives.
White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. and other officials said last summer that the administration would likely present fresh proposals for revising the global warming treaty during the meeting in Morocco. But the administration has set aside its Cabinet-level review of alternatives to the Kyoto protocol in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Undersecretary of State Paula Dobriansky, the head of the U.S. delegation, arrived at the conference with no new offers and largely stayed in the background while the talks proceeded haltingly.
Global warming remains a potent political issue in Europe and Japan. Many scientists who have taken part in U.N.-sanctioned climate change research have concluded that the buildup of heat-trapping chemicals in the atmosphere may cause temperatures to rise by 6 degrees to 12 degrees Fahrenheit this century. That increase is likely to provoke more violent storms, the melting of the polar ice caps and rising sea levels that could inundate small islands and many coastal areas.
While the Senate went on record in 1997 opposing the essential features of the Kyoto protocol, some prominent Republicans and Democrats have urged Bush to find a way to make the pact acceptable.
"How long can the administration turn its back on issues the rest of the world cares about -- from global warming to trade in small arms -- and expect broad support on issues like the war on terrorism?" said Philip Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust.
