Pundits are calling it “climate week”. On Monday the United Nations held a special summit in New York to discuss climate change. Not to be outdone, George Bush has convened a two-day conference of his own on the subject, which will conclude on Friday September 28th in Washington, DC. In theory, both summits are working towards the same goal: a new international agreement on climate change, to replace the UN’s existing treaty, the Kyoto protocol, which will expire in 2012. But America, long a laggard in its response to climate change, is struggling to convince the rest of the world that its pow-wow is anything more than a distraction.
America has not ratified the Kyoto protocol, and refuses to accept its central tenet: that rich countries should place strict limits on their emissions of greenhouse gases, which cause global warming. Instead of a binding international treaty on emissions cuts, America favours what it calls “pledge and review”. Each country, says Condoleezza Rice, America’s Secretary of State, should cook up whatever policy it likes on global warming, and then present it to the world at summits like the one under way in Washington. There are no minimum requirements and no penalties for those who fail to deliver. But America’s critics dismiss this as a “bake sale” approach.
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