US:US PRESIDENT George Bush yesterday set a goal for the US to stop the growth of greenhouse gas emissions by 2025, as he tried to head off more stringent measures from Congress and in international negotiations.
Emissions cuts and economic growth could be "sensibly reconciled", Mr Bush said in a speech from the White House Rose Garden.
The US and the rest of the world must move away from the "flawed approach" of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol in dealing with climate change, he said. "It is now time for the US to look beyond 2012 and take the next step."
The Kyoto accord expires that year and the US and other nations are negotiating an approach for a successor agreement.
While the president's speech marked a shift in dealing with climate change by acknowledging the need to put curbs on heat-trapping gases, he did not offer specific proposals for how to achieve the goals.
Mr Bush said any effort to cut emissions would depend on accelerating technological development.
With nine months left in office, Mr Bush has little time to influence the debate as US lawmakers and governments of other nations are moving on efforts to curtail greenhouse emissions. "President Bush's announcement will be soon forgotten," David Sandalow, an energy and global warming expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said in an statement. "The most important decisions in the international global-warming negotiations will be made once President Bush leaves office."
Mr Bush said he would not embrace any plan that would raise taxes, create duplicate mandates or impose trade barriers. He also opposes measures that would penalise the use of coal or nuclear power, or set standards that could hurt the economy. Mr Bush said power plant emissions should be slowed so they peak over the next 10 to 15 years and decline thereafter. Coal-fired power plants are responsible for 27 per cent of US greenhouse emissions, according to the US energy department.
Democrats and environmental groups said the Mr Bush's goals did not go far enough. Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat who is chairwoman of the environment and public works committee, said her panel would forge ahead on legislation. "The president's plan to have America stand by while greenhouse gases reach dangerous levels and threaten America and the world is worse than doing nothing," Ms Boxer said in a statement.
Senator Maria Cantwell, a Washington Democrat, said the administration was "definitely coming late to the party".
The Senate is considering a measure that would call for mandatory cuts in greenhouse gases. It would create a carbon-trading market of potentially $300 billion (¬188 billion), setting a price for emissions from power plants, gas producers and petroleum importers.
The Bill, sponsored by senator Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, and John Warner, a Virginia Republican, proposes cutting heat-trapping gases by 63 per cent by 2050 through pollution limits on utilities and large manufacturers. "President Bush's announcement appears to be an effort to throw sand in the gears, offering a weak goal in place of strong legislation," Mr Sandalow said.
Mr Bush said he wanted to ensure the world's major economies avoided putting the burden for cutting greenhouse gases on the US, the world's biggest economy, while emerging nations such as China and India were not included in limits. - (Bloomberg)