http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/index-e.htm
Kazuo Nagata and Makiko Tatebayashi Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondents
The United States is expected to present its alternatives to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to cut greenhouse gas emissions at a June 14 summit between the United States and the European Union in Goteborg, Sweden, U.S. government and European diplomatic sources said Wednesday.
According to the sources, the U.S. alternative outline will adhere to market principles, such as in its inclusion of a mechanism that will allow industrialized countries to buy emission reductions from developing countries.
The sixth Conference of Parties to the U.N. Outline Convention on Climate Change (COP6) for battling global warming ended in November at The Hague without reaching any comprehensive agreement.
Following the breakdown, the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush's announced in late March that the United States, the world's largest producer of greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide, would be ditching the Kyoto pact for economic reasons.
However, the United States has said that it is interested in continuing climate talks outside the treaty framework and will join a resumed COP6 in Bonn in July. This will be the final COP6 conference and, hence, the deadline for deciding on concrete measures for implementing the Kyoto pact.
The United Sates is likely to have the COP6 meeting in when it presents its alternatives in Goteborg. The European source said that the problematic U.S. rejection of the Kyoto Protocol was of the greatest interest to them, and that the EU would question the U.S. stance at the upcoming summit. The source said the U.S. side should use the summit to present its outline.
In a similar vein, the U.S. governmental sources said the United States was making every effort so that Bush could explain the alternatives to the EU side at the summit.
The U.S. government unveiled its new energy policy on May 16. Under the policy, the U.S. government will propose its own measures to combat global warming on the basis of market mechanisms and tax credits.
However, the U.S. government has already stated it will not restrict carbon dioxide emissions from thermal power plants in the United States. adding to existing doubts about whether the U.S. government's proposed alternatives to the Kyoto Protocol will be effective. http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/index-e.htm
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