Japan's Environmental Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi speaks during a press conference at the world climate conference in Bonn. (AFP) _____Special Report_____ • Global Warming _____Video_____ • Kyoto Agreement Reached E-Mail This Article Printer-Friendly Version Subscribe to The Post

By William Drozdiak
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, July 24, 2001; Page A01

BRUSSELS, July 23 -- In an agreement that left the United States isolated, negotiators from 180 countries adopted rules to reduce "greenhouse gas" emissions under the world's first treaty on global warming.

Negotiators at the world conference on climate change in Bonn clapped and cheered following an all-night bargaining session when Japan and the European Union struck a compromise resolving the final terms for implementing the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and clearing the way for the ratification process. The United States was alone among major nations opposing the rules.

The euphoria that greeted the rescue of the Kyoto treaty, which seemed close to death after President Bush renounced it in March, reflects the determination of many countries to act swiftly in curbing greenhouse gases, which trap heat in the earth's atmosphere. Many scientists believe the earth's rising temperatures could eventually melt polar ice caps, cause sea levels to rise and increase the devastation from floods and hurricanes.

Diplomats and environmental activists described the breakthrough as a major diplomatic setback for the Bush administration. At the weekend summit conference of Group of Eight nations in Genoa, Italy, Bush joined other leaders in vowing to take urgent action to reverse global warming, but he refused to back the Kyoto process.

"It's a geopolitical earthquake," said Jennifer Morgan, director of the World Wildlife Fund Climate Change Campaign. "Other countries have demonstrated their independence from the Bush administration on the world's most critical environmental problem."

In an illustration of the unpopular American position, the chief U.S. delegate at the Bonn conference, Paula Dobriansky, drew boos from the gallery when she insisted that the United States was committed to taking remedial measures on climate change. The United States, which represents four percent of the world's population but has the largest single economy, produces about 25 percent of the planet's greenhouse gases.

The White House reacted by saying the United States had not opposed other nations' efforts to ratify the accord. "We have always said that the ratification of Kyoto is up to various countries," national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said. "We do continue to believe that any solution to the global climate change problem will have to be a truly global solution, and that developing countries will have to be a part of that solution. So we continue to work with our friends and allies and the rest of the world."

The treaty calls for the world's developed nations to curtail their greenhouse gas emissions below levels they were producing in 1990. Bush claims this binding goal would cause massive dislocations in the U.S. economy because of its dependency on fossil fuels such as oil and coal. He also complains the treaty is "fatally flawed" because it does not require action by developing nations, such as China and India.

The Bush administration says it is conducting an intensive Cabinet-level review of global warming and has promised to come up with an alternative strategy to the Kyoto process. But Dobriansky arrived in Bonn empty-handed, and U.S. officials now say they are trying to get something ready for the next global warming conference in October in Marrakesh, Morocco.

In the absence of U.S. support, Japan became the critical player as the world's second biggest polluter. The treaty must be ratified by 55 nations responsible for 55 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions to enter into force -- and that threshold can only be crossed with Japan's backing.

The compromise was a victory for Japan, which was at the center of the marathon negotiations in Bonn. Japan scored twice in the final agreement: It won a significant reduction of the tough requirements of the protocol, which will appeal to Japanese industry, and Japan also appears to have "saved" the global environment treaty first drafted in 1997 in its historic capital.

Japan signaled it will now support ratification, having achieved most of what it wanted in the negotiations.

Under the compromise reached today, the reductions in harmful emissions will not be as deep as originally envisioned. One major reason is a provision on which Japan insisted allowing nations to take increased credit for so-called "sinks," forested areas that absorb the carbon dioxide gas, seen as a chief culprit of global warming. This also benefits Canada and Russia.

Emissions trading, in which developed countries cut their compliance costs by buying and selling pollution credits, was also crucial for Russia, which stands to gain as much as $10 billion per year because it expects to have a large amount of its quota to trade away. Massive closures of Soviet-era factories have already slashed its pollution levels since 1990.

With the Bonn compromise, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi appears to have escaped a dilemma he had created for himself over whether to support the protocol. When he met Bush at Camp David June 30, he said that "presently" he did not intend on pushing ahead with the Kyoto Protocol if the United States remained opposed. But now, with a crucial parliamentary election looming in Japan on Sunday, Koizumi has made a decision that will be politically popular at home.

After seeing the previous session last November in The Hague collapse in a dispute between the United States and the EU, many delegates arrived in Bonn prepared to make significant concessions in order to salvage the Kyoto treaty.

"We felt we could not fail twice," said Jan Pronk, the Dutch environment minister who served as chairman of the conference. "We had made a promise. Citizens, the electorate, people did expect us to reach a result."

Throughout the Kyoto talks, the EU countries pressed for strong commitments that would sharply reduce emissions, while other countries such as the United States, Japan, Russia and Canada argued in favor of flexible mechanisms, such as counting carbon-absorbing forests, as ways to offset the economic sacrifices involved in curbing pollution from cars and factories.

After the failure in The Hague, EU delegates offered many more concessions in this round in order to clinch a deal. The final compromise was struck when Japan was satisfied that penalties against countries that fail to meet the Kyoto targets would not be legally binding.

Developing countries secured new funding to help them cope with the rising seas, devastating storms and diminished harvests that are anticipated in coming decades because of climate change. While the fund was supposed to reach $1 billion, it will only amount to about $550 million because the United States has refused to pay its previously allocated share.

Correspondent Doug Struck in Tokyo and staff writer Dana Milbank in Washington contributed to this report.

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