The US has rejected encouragement from the European Union to sign up to the revived Kyoto Protocol on global warming, agreed in Bonn today.
"The message to [US President] Bush is he's welcome. The door is open." said Belgian Deputy Environment and Energy Minister Mr Olivier Deleuze. Belgium holds the presidency of the EU.
US Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs Ms Paula Dobriansky did not refer to the offer but quashed any speculation Washington would now buckle to pressure to return to Kyoto.
"Although the United States does not intend to ratify that agreement, we have not sought to stop others from moving ahead so long as legitimate US interests were protected," she said.
"At the same time, the United States must emphasise that by non-blocking consensus on these pro-Kyoto rules does not change our view that the Kyoto Protocol is not sound policy."PresidentBush stunned the world by announcing in March that he would not submit Kyoto to US Senate ratification.
He branded the accord as too costly for the US economy and "fundamentally flawed" as it placed the biggest demands on industrialised countries rather than fastgrowing developing ones like China and India.
The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 1997 as a framework agreement of targeted cuts in emissions of carbon-rich "greenhouse gases" blamed for potentially catastrophic changes of the world's climate system.
In a statement to the conference's plenary session, Ms Dobriansky stressed the US was strongly committed to helping developing countries cope with climate change.
Although the US has rejected Kyoto, it remained at the negotiating table as it has ratified the protocol's parent treaty, the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
AFP