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.
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