C
Captain Compassion
Guest
AP Interview: Kerry says US Senate wouldn't pass climate deal without
developing countries
The Associated PressPublished: December 10, 2007
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/12/10/asia/AS-GEN-Bali-Kerry-Interview.php
BALI, Indonesia: If China and other emerging economies don't
contribute to reining in greenhouse gases, "it would be very
difficult" to get a new global climate deal through the U.S. Senate,
even under a Democratic president, Sen. John Kerry said Monday.
"At some point in time, they will have to take on those reductions,
for several reasons, most importantly the developed countries are not
going to be able to do this on their own," Kerry said in an interview.
The Massachusetts Democrat, a longtime champion of the climate cause
in Washington, spoke with The Associated Press during a fast-paced,
one-day visit midway through the two-week U.N. climate conference on
Bali island.
Delegates from more than 180 nations hope to adopt a final document
this Friday that would launch a two-year negotiating process to reach
an agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012.
Kyoto requires 36 industrial nations to reduce emissions of carbon
dioxide and other global-warming gases by an average 5 percent below
1990 levels by 2012. The U.S. is the only major industrial nation to
reject the 1997 pact.
Kerry noted that one reason Kyoto found no support in the late 1990s
in the Senate, which must ratify such international accords, was that
it didn't demand emissions cuts by developing nations. That objection
was later repeated by U.S. President George W. Bush, who complained
such an agreement would harm the U.S. economy.
The draft final document being debated here, besides calling for
renewed post-2012 emission-reduction targets for industrialized
countries, says negotiators in 2008-09 should also consider ways to
measure and recognize what such developing countries as China and
India are doing to slow their emissions growth.
China, for one, is expected to overtake the United States this year or
next as the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, and is taking
steps to improve energy efficiency.
Kerry said the final document should include a "more bold statement"
of developing-country responsibility.
"If the 'roadmap' that comes out of Bali does not embrace the notion
that less developed countries have to also be part of the solution at
an appropriate moment in an appropriate way, it would be very
difficult to pass something, certainly in our country," said Kerry,
the 2004 U.S. Democratic presidential nominee.
"But I believe that won't be the case," he added. "I believe we're
going to make progress both in the United States and globally."
During his one-day visit, the senator repeatedly sounded the theme
that, despite Bush administration opposition to mandatory caps on U.S.
emissions, many U.S. states have gone ahead and set their own limits,
led by California. He said the end of the Bush administration in 2009
will most likely introduce a new attitude in the White House as well.
The U.S. delegation here was opposing inclusion in the conference
final document of a nonbinding reference to an emissions-reduction
guideline favored by the European Union
developing countries
The Associated PressPublished: December 10, 2007
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/12/10/asia/AS-GEN-Bali-Kerry-Interview.php
BALI, Indonesia: If China and other emerging economies don't
contribute to reining in greenhouse gases, "it would be very
difficult" to get a new global climate deal through the U.S. Senate,
even under a Democratic president, Sen. John Kerry said Monday.
"At some point in time, they will have to take on those reductions,
for several reasons, most importantly the developed countries are not
going to be able to do this on their own," Kerry said in an interview.
The Massachusetts Democrat, a longtime champion of the climate cause
in Washington, spoke with The Associated Press during a fast-paced,
one-day visit midway through the two-week U.N. climate conference on
Bali island.
Delegates from more than 180 nations hope to adopt a final document
this Friday that would launch a two-year negotiating process to reach
an agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012.
Kyoto requires 36 industrial nations to reduce emissions of carbon
dioxide and other global-warming gases by an average 5 percent below
1990 levels by 2012. The U.S. is the only major industrial nation to
reject the 1997 pact.
Kerry noted that one reason Kyoto found no support in the late 1990s
in the Senate, which must ratify such international accords, was that
it didn't demand emissions cuts by developing nations. That objection
was later repeated by U.S. President George W. Bush, who complained
such an agreement would harm the U.S. economy.
The draft final document being debated here, besides calling for
renewed post-2012 emission-reduction targets for industrialized
countries, says negotiators in 2008-09 should also consider ways to
measure and recognize what such developing countries as China and
India are doing to slow their emissions growth.
China, for one, is expected to overtake the United States this year or
next as the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, and is taking
steps to improve energy efficiency.
Kerry said the final document should include a "more bold statement"
of developing-country responsibility.
"If the 'roadmap' that comes out of Bali does not embrace the notion
that less developed countries have to also be part of the solution at
an appropriate moment in an appropriate way, it would be very
difficult to pass something, certainly in our country," said Kerry,
the 2004 U.S. Democratic presidential nominee.
"But I believe that won't be the case," he added. "I believe we're
going to make progress both in the United States and globally."
During his one-day visit, the senator repeatedly sounded the theme
that, despite Bush administration opposition to mandatory caps on U.S.
emissions, many U.S. states have gone ahead and set their own limits,
led by California. He said the end of the Bush administration in 2009
will most likely introduce a new attitude in the White House as well.
The U.S. delegation here was opposing inclusion in the conference
final document of a nonbinding reference to an emissions-reduction
guideline favored by the European Union
