Posted on 19-5-2002

UK Minister Attacks Bush
Nicholas Watt, political correspondent Guardian, Thursday May 16, 2002

Britain will today launch its strongest attack on George Bush's rejection
of the Kyoto climate protocol, as the government warns that Washington's
actions threaten to make the planet "uninhabitable".

Angered by the US government's decision to rule out signing up to Kyoto for
the next 10 years, the environment minister, Michael Meacher, writes in
today's Guardian that the world is running out of time. "We do not have
much time and we do not have any serious option. If we do not act quickly
to minimise runaway feedback effects [from global warming] we run the risk
of making this planet, our home, uninhabitable."

The minister's intervention came after Washington's chief climate
negotiator, Harlan Watson, said in London earlier this week that an
independent US initiative to cut emissions of greenhouse gases would not be
assessed until 2012. "We are not going to be part of the Kyoto protocol for
the foreseeable future," he announced. Mr Watson's remarks prompted an
outspoken attack on the US by Mr Meacher. "I am so disappointed that this
week the US refused to reconsider coming back into the climate talks for 10
years. The need for action is urgent," he writes.

Tony Blair also admitted last night that Britain and the US were at odds
over the Kyoto protocol, the international agreement drawn up to help slow,
and mitigate the effects of, climate change. In an interview on BBC2's
Newsnight, the prime minister said: "On Kyoto, there is a difference of
opinion. We have made that clear."

Mr Meacher takes a swipe at the US's apparent complacency when he warns
that there are strong reasons for "doubting the comforting US picture that
there's plenty of time to deal with the problem". The minister adds: "One
[reason] is that climate change may be not steady but abrupt; the other is
that the pressures we inflict on the climate may trigger wholly unexpected
developments from feedback effects." Latest scientific evidence suggests
the impact of climate change on Britain could be "faster and sharper" than
expected, says Mr Meacher.