The United States, despite being a major polluting nation, is planning to pour cold water on the plan to push for a new deal which will succeed the Kyoto Protocol at next month’s Group of Eight summit in Germany.
Washington apparently wants to delete a portion in the draft of the final communique of the summit which stresses on urgency of the climate crisis and seeks a UN conference in Bali to discuss a new deal which will replace the Kyoto Protocol lapsing in 2012.
Britain and Germany, however, have sprung into action and pushing for a new deal, expanding its scope and membership as well by bringing in more nations under the same umbrella.
An adamant US had earlier rejected the Kyoto Protocol in 2001 and has problem with the targets set by the G8 summit to cut down on carbon emissions.
Washington objected to G8 President Germany’s effort to arrive at an agreement to reduce energy consumption by 20 percent by the year 2020. The US is also against the call to take actions so that the rise in global temperature can be limited to two degree Celsius in this century.
The G8 concern about global warming stems from the prediction that the average temperatures rise will be 1.8-4 degrees Celsius this century due to burning fossil fuels.
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