Bush offers new plan to combat global warming

On the eve of next week's international conference on global warming, President George Bush has announced a US multi-million dollar programme of research on the reduction of greenhouse gases.

Following the US repudiation of the Kyoto protocol on limiting greenhouse emissions, international attention has focused on getting the US to come up with an alternative approach. Mr Bush's response has been an acknowledgement of the problem - itself seen as an advance on previous US denials - and an energy policy focused largely on improving supply.

The announcement yesterday will be seen in Europe as an attempt by the US administration to improve its standing ahead of the conference but the sums being invested in research are likely to impress few.

"These initiatives represent important steps in putting our principles to work through partnerships with other nations, industry and non-government organisations," Mr Bush said in a statement.

Mr Bush said NASA will invest more than $120 million in the next three years in research on the natural carbon cycle, climate modelling and the link between atmospheric chemistry and climate.

The Department of Energy has signed agreements for two other projects to study programmes that can absorb carbon, known as "carbon sequestration".

The first agreement is with the Nature Conservancy, the world's largest private international conservation group, to study land use and forestry practices for storing carbon more effectively in Brazil and Belize.

The second is with a group of international energy companies - BP-Amoco, Royal Dutch/Shell, Chevron and Texaco, Pan-Canadian and Suncor Energy of Canada, ENI of Italy, Statoil Forskningssenter and Norsk Hydro of Norway.

That group will help develop a new set of technologies for reducing the cost of capturing carbon dioxide from fossil fuel combustion plants.

The Department of the Treasury also entered into a $14 million "debt for forest" agreement with El Salvador under the tropical Forest Conservation Act, Mr Bush said.

Mr Bush said last month the 1997 Kyoto agreement was "fatally flawed" but he added that his administration was committed to developing an effective, science-based response to the issue of global warming.

--(Additional reporting by Reuters)