EU Reaction to the speech by US President Bush on Climate Change
IP/01/821 - Brussels, 12th June 2001
Climate change

In a reaction to a speech given by US President George W Bush on climate change, Environment Commissioner Margot Wallström said: "We of course welcome that the US wants to work with other countries to address climate change. However, President Bush has basically repeated what he said earlier. We think it is time to move on from analysing the issues towards action. I am worried that his speech is short of action to actually reduce emissions." Swedish Environment Minister Kjell Larsson, representing the EU Presidency, said: "We regret that President Bush continues to reject the Kyoto Protocol. Abandoning the Kyoto Protocol would mean postponing international action to combat climate change for years - and we are already late. We can not accept this. The EU ministers have therefore confirmed that they stand firm behind the Kyoto Protocol and are ready to proceed with the ratification of it. Without the US the Protocol will be less effective of course since they account for a large part of world emissions."

We welcome that the US wants to seriously address the threats of climate change and that they want to do so in co-operation with other countries in the United Nations context. However, the Kyoto Protocol and the Kyoto process represent the result of a ten-year international effort to lay the foundations for an international regime to combat climate change which already provides sufficient flexibility to accommodate different national situations. Basic elements of the protocol such as binding commitments, market oriented mechanisms in order to achieve cost effectiveness, a compliance regime and tools for co-operation between developed and developing countries are of profound importance in a global system aiming at combating climate change. Therefore, the EU remains convinced that the industrialised world has to take the lead and reaffirms its commitment to the Kyoto Protocol and to its ratification and entry into force by 2002.

Some comments on details in the speech: 1.The ideas and proposals put forward by the President have a strong focus on research and technological innovation. The EU also supports this and is willing to co-operate with the US in these areas. However, the approach is short on action that will contribute to actually reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the short to medium term.



2. We support the continuous improvement of scientific knowledge and monitoring mechanisms, but research should not become an excuse for delaying action. The EU is convinced that scientific evidence, as laid down in the IPCC Third Assessment Report and confirmed by the recent report of the US National Academy of Science, is solid enough to warrant concrete and urgent action.

The Framework Convention on Climate Change of 1992, to which the US is a Party, already stipulated that Parties should take precautionary measures and that lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing such measures.

3. Furthermore, we are in favour of further promoting technological innovation. But the EU is confident that a lot of clean technologies are already available and ready to be implemented today. For example, the results of the European Climate Change Programme show that there is a lot of scope for low-cost emission reductions in the EU (see IP/01/816). This is certainly also valid for the US. 4. Many of the US ideas, on research, monitoring and capacity building in these areas in developing countries, seem to build upon commitments already undertaken by Parties within the framework of the Climate Change Convention. However, the approach outlined by President Bush seems to lack the extra step that Parties considered necessary by adopting the Kyoto Protocol, namely for industrialised countries to take the lead in reducing emissions on the basis of clear targets and timetables that should lead to curbing emission trends. Therefore, we would like to see the details of the US proposals in order to see how they complement and go beyond existing commitments under the Convention. 5. The EU recognises that climate change is a global threat that requires a global solution. However, action has to be based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, as enshrined in the Climate Convention. We can not expect that developing countries do something that many industrialised countries in the world, with all their research and technological capabilities have not been able to do. The EU does not think this is realistic nor fair, taking into account historical responsibility, current capability and actual per capita emissions.