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US under pressure at climate conference, as US Senate pushes for pollution cuts Eds: UPDATES with U.S., U.N. reaction to Senate action, Australian leader denying full endorsement of specific targets; minor edits. AP Photo XDA104, EKW101, EKW103 By JOSEPH COLEMAN
Associated Press Writer
BALI, Indonesia (AP) - American climate negotiators refused to back down in their opposition to mandatory cuts in greenhouse gas emissions Thursday, even as a U.S. Senate panel endorsed sharp reductions in pollution blamed for global warming.
The United States, the worlds largest producer of such gases, has resisted calls for strict limits on emissions at the U.N. climate conference, which is aimed at launching negotiations for an agreement to follow the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012.
That stance suffered a blow when the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee passed a bill Wednesday to cut U.S. emissions by 70 percent by 2050 from electric power plants, manufacturing and transportation. The bill now goes to the full Senate.
U.S. climate negotiator Harlan Watson, however, said that would not impact Washingtons position at the international gathering in Bali.
“In our process, a vote for movement of a bill out of committee does not ensure its ultimate passage,” he told reporters. “I dont know the details, but we will not alter our posture here.”
Washingtons isolation in Bali has increased following Australias announcement Monday that it has reversed its opposition to the Kyoto pact and started the ratification process - winning applause at the conferences opening session. That left the U.S. as the only industrialized nation to oppose the agreement.
On Thursday, the Australian delegation said Canberra supported a U.N. document that mentioned cutting greenhouse gas emissions by between 25 percent and 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. The government has already proposed 60 percent cuts by 2050.
However, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd refused on Thursday to commit to the 2020 figures, saying it was premature to set firm targets before he receives a comprehensive report he has commissioned on the issue, due next year.
The U.S. Senate action cheered environmentalists and others in Bali clamoring for dramatic action to stop global warming. U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer led off his daily briefing Thursday by hailing the “encouraging sign” from the United States.
“This is a very welcome development,” Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists said of the Senate measure. “It shows the increasing isolation of the Bush administration in terms of U.S. policy on this issue.”
David Waskow, of the Oxfam humanitarian agency, said the Senate legislation was a positive signal to developing nations and others in Bali that America may be ready to assume a more active role in battling climate change.
“Its one of the things that point the way to having the United States re-engage in the negotiations, and really I think in many ways demonstrates the U.S. leadership on these issues,” Waskow said.
Further momentum for serious greenhouse gas cuts, which experts say are needed to stave off the most destructive effects of rising temperatures, came from a petition released Thursday by a group of at least 215 climate scientists who urged the world to reduce emissions by half by 2050.
“We have to start reducing greenhouse gas emissions as soon as we possibly can,” said Australian climatologist Matthew England, a group spokesman. “It needs action. Were talking about now.”
The United States and ally Japan are proposing that the post-Kyoto agreement favor voluntary emission targets, arguing that mandatory cuts would threaten economic growth which generates money needed to fund technology to effectively fight global warming.
Failure to reach a new international consensus on curbing emissions, experts warn, will raise the threat of catastrophic droughts and floods, increased heat waves and disease, and sea level rises caused by melting polar ice.
U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns denied that Australias acceptance of the Kyoto accord would prompt Washington to do the same.
“We do not see eye-to-eye with Australia or many other countries on the wisdom of signing the Kyoto regime, thats obvious,” Burns said in Sydney, Australia.
