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Bush is right in saying Kyoto has flaws. Chief among them: under the accord, the developing countries (including China and India), which will soon account for the majority of emissions, have no obligation to control emissions growth. Even Senate Democrats acknowledged that with a resolution that passed 95 to 0 in 1997 and declared the Senate unlikely to ratify any agreement that did not include meaningful participation by developing nations. European leaders are probably breathing easier because Bush, by stepping forward, relieved them of the need to take concrete actions at home, where resistance to higher gasoline prices has been...
...difficult task for the Clinton Administration to get other nations to agree to a system that both allowed trading to reduce costs and gave credit for establishing carbon "sinks" by protecting growing forested areas or planting trees on degraded farmland. Clinton and Gore negotiating the flexible, market-oriented Kyoto accord was a bit like Nixon going to China. A conservative like Bush could never have achieved such flexibility without vituperative criticism from activists and Democrats...
...Time: The Bush Administration has shown contempt for the Kyoto environment accord, the OECD effort to curb tax havens, the abm treaty and the biological weapons deal. Are there perils in this approach? Solana: It is impossible for the U.S. to abandon its responsibilities. I am sure it will continue to engage in a good tone with the Europeans. In the coming week these things will become clear...
...best you can say they've agreed to disagree. The atmosphere of the talks was positive, by all accounts, and they're all emphasizing the "indispensable partnership" between Europe and the U.S. But each side was never going to convince the other to change its view of the Kyoto Accord, nor would it have been politically productive for President Bush to try and convince the Europeans to change their position...
...also interesting how, in their discussions on how to implement the accord, the Europeans are also now placing a lot more emphasis on devices such as trading emissions rights, which creates a market incentive to cut the output of greenhouse gases. When President Clinton first made those the focus of his thinking on Kyoto, the Europeans rejected that and demanded that the focus be on capping output. But it seems that once they're looking at the monies involved, they're more inclined to be more flexible in how they'd pursue the Kyoto targets. Of course, if they...