The European Parliament today was set to condemn the United States' withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol on global warming as "appalling and provocative" and threatening climate disaster.
|
A sharply worded resolution, expected to be voted on later today, said parliament "strongly condemns the decision by President George W Bush not to implement the Kyoto Protocol", saying the move endangered "the whole Kyoto process."
Parliament, it said, "is appalled that the long-term interests of the majority of the world population are being sacrificed for short-term corporate greed in the US."
"This decision is a very bad political signal for EU-US relations and dialogue," it said.
The Kyoto Protocol, reached in the Japanese city of that name in 1997, targets reductions in carbon-rich gases, mainly the by-product of burning oil, gas and coal.
In Brussels the EU environment commissioner Ms Margot Wallstrom - just back from a futile mission to Washington trying to convince US officials to rethink their position - said the EU "really intends to push forward ... despite the US withdrawal."
She went to Washington with Swedish counterpart Mr Kjell Larsson and environment official Mr Marc Pallemaerts of Belgium, which takes the EU presidency in July.
Ms Wallstrom said the US message from the talks was very clear: "They will not ratify the Kyoto Protocol and they want to withdraw from the Kyoto process. But they acknowledged that climate change was a big problem."
AFP