US won't speed up emissions cuts: Top climate negotiator

The Economic Times , Friday, May 29, 2009
Correspondent : AFP
PARIS: Domestic politics will not allow the United States to deepen its commitment for cutting carbon pollution over the next decade, Washington's top climate negotiator has said.

"We are jumping as high as the political system will tolerate," Todd Stern said yesterday, rejecting China's call this week for rich nations to slash greenhouse gases by 40% before 2020, compared to 1990 levels.

"The 40% the Chinese have talked about is not realistic," the US Special Envoy for Climate Change said.

A summit of Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (MEF) members -- which together account for 80% of global CO2 emissions -- is scheduled for July in Italy, probably on the heels of a G8 summit, Stern said.

US President Barack Obama proposes to cut US emissions by about six per cent by 2020, and by at least 80% before mid-century. But in the run-up to UN talks in Copenhagen in December charged with delivering a new global climate deal, countries such as China and India have said this isn't enough.

Their position has been echoed by many climate experts as well as the EU, which has committed to a 20% reduction by 2020, 30% of others follow suit.

Stern, however, cautioned that pushing for deeper cuts in the United States could backfire. "It is vital that developed countries get a path that is ambitious and consistent with what science is telling us to do," he said.

 
SOURCE : Friday, 29 May 2009
 


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