Climate talks secure U.S. support
EPA chief tackles, overcomes fears that Bush isn't serious about 'green' issues
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Carbon dioxide emissions pose a great threat to the environment
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March 5, 2001
Web posted at: 12:18 PM EST (1718 GMT)
Summary: The United States' new Environmental Protection Agency chief, Christine Todd Whitman, energized efforts to combat global warming at an Italian climate conference attended by representatives of the G8 -- a group of eight of the world's most prominent economic and political nations. Whitman tackled European fears regarding the willingness of her boss, President George W. Bush, to clean up the planet, promising support of legislation to limit the output of carbon dioxide and to work with environmental leaders worldwide to address global climate change.
TRIESTE, Italy -- The United States has given the international community a commitment to improve the environment and help battle the effects of global warming.
The new head of the U.S. environmental effort, Christine Todd Whitman, told her G8 partners that Washington is serious about cleaning up the planet.
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Whitman, who took over the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in January, attended the weekend's summit in Trieste aware of doubts over President George W. Bush's position on green issues -- particularly on global warming.
European Union countries wanted to know whether Bush would return to negotiations on sealing the 1997 Kyoto pact on reducing pollution blamed for climate change, an agreement he had called "unfair to America" during his election campaign.
Whitman said: "The president has said global climate change is the greatest environmental challenge that we face, and that we must recognize that and take steps to move forward."
The president would oversee bipartisan legislation to limit carbon dioxide -- the main "greenhouse gas" blamed by many scientists for trapping heat in the earth's atmosphere -- from U.S. power plants for the first time, she added.
Some EU countries had clashed with the United States at the last effort to get the global warming strategy off the ground -- an international climate conference at The Hague last November.
"Ms. Whitman was very positive about climate change being a global issue, about the scientific evidence and that the Kyoto framework was something they should work within," a senior British official said.
Green groups also felt buoyed by the Whitman effect.
"Whitman led a move forward," said World Wildlife Fund's climate campaigner Jennifer Morgan. "She could have come to play a spoiler role, but she came to build relationships and bring the message that George Bush thinks that climate change is a serious problem."
Environmentalists have accused Bush of having a poor track record in environmental policy while he was Texas governor.
A United Nations' scientific panel has said the average global temperature is likely to rise by between 1.4 and 5.8 degrees Celsius (2.5-10.4 Fahrenheit) over the next 100 years. Sea levels could rise by as much as 88 centimenters (35 inches).
Such a change in temperature -- which many scientists believe is being caused by pollution trapping heat in the atmosphere -- would mean widespread droughts and floods and massive economic and natural damage, experts say.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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RELATED SITES:
Kyoto climate summit
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: Global Warming
European Union
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