US business may force Bush U-turn on Kyoto Protocol

Date: 26/07/01

By Laurence Frost

THE US will eventually be forced to swallow its pride and ratify Kyoto after this week's breakthrough agreement on greenhouse-gas emissions, a senior EU environmental official is predicting.

The head of the European Commission's climate-change unit says there are already signs that US business will take the lead in rethinking Washington's opposition to the protocol. "The emissions trading markets we have agreed on will create new opportunities for companies," said Jos Delbeke. "We're already being lobbied by US companies to put good rules in place."

Under a new 'clean development mechanism', companies in participating countries will earn credits for exporting low-emissions technologies to developing countries; the credits can then be traded for cash. "It's an extra economic benefit," said Delbeke. "There's now a huge world market for these companies to exploit."

In reaching Monday's deal in Bonn, all 178 countries overcame their remaining differences in other difficult areas including 'carbon sinks' - allowing governments to take account of CO2-absorbing forests to reduce their calculated emissions - and the funding of emissions reduction in developing countries.

The deal was possible only after major concessions from the EU delegation headed by Belgian environment minister Olivier Deleuze.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell declared last week that Washington would present its own climate-change strategy before October's next round of international talks in Marrakech. But Delbeke said there was little room for alternatives to the deal already agreed. "With the decision we now have it's less pressing to wait for the US [proposal]," the senior official said. "It's rather for the Americans to decide whether they want to be part of the multilateral system. I think when the time is right they will join the club."

The US will eventually be forced to swallow its pride and ratify Kyoto after the breakthrough agreement on greenhouse-gas emissions reached at Bonn on 25 July 2001, a senior EU environmental official is predicting.