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Saturday, 26 May 2007 |
The US has rejected any prospect of a deal on climate change at the G8 summit
in Germany next month, according to a leaked document.
Despite Tony Blair's declaration on Thursday that Washington would sign up to
"at least the beginnings" of action to cut carbon emissions, a note attached to
a draft document circulated by Germany says the US is "fundamentally opposed" to
the proposals.
The note, written in red ink, says the deal "runs counter to our overall
position and crosses multiple 'red lines' in terms of what we simply cannot
agree to".
"This document is called FINAL but we never agreed to any of the climate
language present in the document ... We have tried to 'tread lightly' but there
is only so far we can go given our fundamental opposition to the German
position," it says.
The tone is blunt, with whole pages of the draft crossed out and even the
mildest statements about confirming previous agreements rejected. "The proposals
within the sections titled 'Fighting Climate Change' and 'Carbon Markets' are
fundamentally incompatible with the President's approach to climate change,"
says another red-ink comment.
This is embarrassing for Mr Blair, who said on Thursday with some confidence
that the US was moderating its position on climate change as the summit
approached. Before visiting the White House this month, the prime minister
suggested that he was close to persuading George Bush to accept the
establishment of carbon trading schemes, one of five main proposals drawn up
ahead of the G8. But Washington rejected the sections on carbon trading, saying
to back trading schemes would imply acceptance of emission caps.
A diplomatic source said the German EU presidency and the US government appeared
now so far apart it was hard to see how negotiators could reach anything other
than a meaningless agreement in Heiligendamm in just under two weeks.
As well as cutting global emissions, Germany had stated in its draft that it
wanted agreement to curb the rise in average temperatures this century to 2C and
raise energy efficiency in power and transport by 20% by 2020. Both positions
are compatible with policies in California and other US states, which have set
their own targets and timetables.
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, this week suggested that there was little
hope of a deal. She said preliminary talks at the EU-Russia summit and in
meetings with G8 members had been "difficult".
The director of Greenpeace, John Sauven, said the leaked document proved Britain
had failed to influence the US. "Despite his protestations to the contrary Tony
Blair's efforts to persuade George Bush of the importance of tackling climate
change have singularly failed," he said.
The scene is set for a showdown between the US and other G8 countries who want
early action on climate change. Germany's environment minister, Sigmar Gabriel,
said the country was prepared to block decisions on other issues unless the US
and other G8 members made concessions on the environment. "America doesn't want
to commit to firm goals. We can't put the global future of our children at risk
because of the narrow-mindedness of individual negotiating partners."
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