The European Commission today tentatively welcomed US President Mr George W. Bush's unveiling of policies to tackle climate change but said the Kyoto treaty was still the best response to global warming.
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Mr George W Bush
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Mr Bush was to present an alternative climate change strategy later today. Last year the US pulled out of the 1997 United Nations treaty on cutting "greenhouse gas" emissions that was signed by his predecessor, Mr Bill Clinton, saying it would harm the US economy.
After the pullout, the European Union launched a diplomatic offensive to get other big polluters, such as Japan and Russia, to keep the pact afloat, securing an agreement at UN meetings in Germany and Morocco.
"It is positive that the US administration is realising that there needs to be something done about climate change but we feel that the multilateral approach is the best way to face up to this tremendous challenge," EU Commission spokeswoman Ms Pia Ahrenkilde-Hansen said.
Ms Ahrenkilde-Hansen said the EU hoped Washington would eventually return to Kyoto.
Mr Bush is set to announce plans to "slow, stop and then, as the science justifies, reverse" emissions growth.
A White House factsheet said Mr Bush's global climate change plan would call for cutting so-called "greenhouse gas intensity" - the ratio of emissions to US gross domestic product (GDP) growth - by 18 per cent over the next 10 years. Administration officials said these cuts were generally comparable to those set out in the Kyoto treaty, which the White House warned would devastate an economy already jolted by the September 11th attacks and put "millions of Americans out of work".
Under Kyoto, the United States had agreed to cut emissions by 7 per cent of 1990 levels by 2012.
Mr Bush's announcement will come just three days before he sets off to Asia for talks with Japanese and Chinese leaders - key players in the climate change debate.