Ratify Kyoto With or Without the US
President George W. Bush's announcement in late March that the United States was abandoning the Kyoto Protocol was met by a storm of protest, both in the US and internationally. Governments, scientists, religious leaders, labour and other public figures, as well as environmental organisations, condemned the move. The US was seen as abandoning its moral, political and legal responsibility to work internationally to address the most pressing international environmental problem of the 21 st century: global climate change. President Bush's visit to Europe threatens to be marked by outrage created by the world's worst greenhouse gas polluter's rejection of the last 12 years of international climate negotiations.
Greenpeace believes that the Bush administration's isolationist policy will ultimately fail, both domestically and internationally. The recent defection of Senator James Jeffords of Vermont indicates the breadth of opposition to Bush's rejection of Kyoto, his energy policy and the rest of his hard core right wing agenda, even from moderates within his own party. George Bush does not have a mandate from the American people or the Congress to wreck the international climate negotiations.
Greenpeace urges the European Union to stand firm in the face of Bush's posturing, and to recognise that the majority of the American people support international action to protect the climate. Europe must stand firm in its resolve to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, and have it enter into force in time for the Rio+10 Summit in Johannesburg in September of 2002. Failure to do so will be met with the harshest criticism from the vast majority of Europeans who want to get on with the business of preventing dangerous climate change. US public opinion and the US Congress are moving inexorably in the right direction. The White House will follow eventually...
