THE BRITISH Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, launched a veiled attack on US environmental policy yesterday as his new government sought to lead the Earth Summit review and boost its international standing.
President Clinton split with the EU at the weekend by refusing to agree to a proposed cap on carbon dioxide emissions before a December conference in Japan. The EU wants a cap 15 per cent below 1990 levels by 2010.
Mr Blair, who has called for an even more ambitious goal of 20 per cent, extolled Britain's compliance with the voluntary limits set at the 1992 Rio de Janeiro environment summit and criticised those who failed.
"(We) did deliver on the greenhouse gas emission targets," he told the 60 world leaders gathered to assess the results from Rio. "Some other countries cannot say the same, including some of the great industrialised nations."
Although he did not name names, Mr Blair added: "The biggest responsibility falls on those countries with the biggest emissions." The United States is the biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, the primary cause of global warming.
Mr Blair jumped into the widening breach between industrialised countries and the developing world which has complained that the North has reneged on promises of aid to help them meet environmental standards.
The Japanese Prime Minister, Mr Ryutaro Hashimoto, tried to play the mediator between the two camps, as his government is hosting a further summit on the theme in December.
The French President, Mr Jacques Chirac, expressing concern about a coming shortage of fresh water, made the conference an offer to host a water management meeting of all interested parties early next year.
"According to the WHO (World Health Organisation), each year 250 million human beings, of whom four million are children, die of diseases linked to water pollution" he said.
"Let us together decide that in 10 years' time every village in the Third World, in Africa in particular, must have its own well or access to drinking water," Mr Chirac said.