The European Union is sending its Environment Commissioner to Washington for urgent talks following the American decision to abandon the Kyoto Treaty on global warming. Many European governments have reacted angrily. The French Environment Minister described the decision by the US President, George W Bush, as provocative and irresponsible. At a news conference in Washington, Mr Bush said that he would not accept anything that would harm the US economy and hurt American workers.
In the Republic of Ireland, the Labour leader, Ruairí Quinn, said that it was clear the new US President had little regard for what his father called the New World Order. Mr Quinn said that the American decision portrayed a worrying anti-intellectualism and an administration that would be belligerent and aggressive in the conduct of its foreign policy. The Minister for the Environment, Noel Dempsey, is to write to the American ambassador here expressing concern about the US decision. Mr Dempsey told the Dáil he had learned of the decision with deep regret because, he said, the Kyoto accord was an effective framework for global action on reducing emissions.
In another development, the German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is expected to confront President Bush in Washington on his refusal to implement the Kyoto Treaty. The US is facing mounting international criticism over its abandonment of the Treaty, which was signed in 1997 by Bill Clinton. The White House said that the President did not support the measure because it exempted the developing world and was not in the best interests of the United States. The European Union said that the decision was very worrying. It was also condemned by Japan, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Tomihiro Taniguchi, vice-chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), described President Bush's decision as "very regrettable". However, he is hopeful that the decision is not the President's final word on the matter. "I don't think it's the definitive decision. The new administration has not finished their review (of environment and energy policy)." Taniguchi believes that the US coal and oil industry had an influence the President's decision. Research carried out by about 2,000 IPCC researchers worldwide shows that average world surface temperatures have risen at a faster rate in the 1990s than in any other decade over the past 1,000 years. The Panel claims that industrial pollution, especially from carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses, is linked to climate change.
Asia has been outraged by the US decision. With Japan leading the pack, Asian countries vowed to use diplomatic pressure in an attempt to reverse the decision. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda insisted that it was imperative that the US signs the agreement, saying "it is extremely important that the United States, the world's biggest state to emit carbon dioxide, signs the treaty". China has branded the US move "irresponsible".
The EU Environment Commissioner said: "The EU is willing to discuss details and problems - but not scrap the whole protocol." Island states in the Pacific Ocean have said that their survival is at stake as they have been devastated by rising sea levels and sever storms and droughts in the recent past. Australia said that the US, as the worlds most voracious resources consumer, it had a duty to decrease world emissions of greenhouse gases.
