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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: neolib who wrote (153719)	12/8/2004 10:46:58 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 281500

Beyond Kyoto _____________________ SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD Thursday, December 9, 2004 seattlepi.nwsource.com The world is capable of moving forward on global warming without the United States. But American leadership would certainly help. The value of U.S. participation in concerted, international efforts to slow the process of climate change rests in part on our ownership of the problem. A quarter of the greenhouse gases come from this country. U.S. administrations have a long tradition of diplomatic leadership on critical issues, as well. But, as an international conference on global warming illustrates, the Bush administration has dug in its heels. Having rejected the Kyoto protocol setting targets for emissions reductions, the administration now says it isn't ready to join in efforts at the Buenos Aires conference to talk about upcoming negotiations on new controls after Kyoto expires in 2012. Science, the U.S. delegates blandly insist, will solve the problem. This, of course, is the same administration that cast so much doubt on the science behind global warming. It's ironic that many developing countries share the administration's reluctance to talk about post-2012 rules. That's because less-developed countries so far have escaped any emissions reduction requirements, supposedly a main U.S. objection to the Kyoto rules. It's fine to talk about scientific advances and to even subsidize research on new technologies, as the Bush administration is doing. But U.S. firms would have a lot more incentive to innovate if requirements for emissions improvements were put into law. The faster the rest of the world addresses global warming, the further behind the United States seems destined to fall.