Bush’s slight of hand

Rather than deal with the recommendations that German Chancellor Merkel has put on the table for the up-coming G8 conference that will accent the environment, the US president has called … a meeting.

What Bush seems to want to do is get the top 15 countries of greenhouse gas emissions into a room for up to 18 months to thrash out a long-term goal for cutting emissions. Of course, this would pass off the environment file to the next White House occupant and probably encumber her.

The US had objected to the Kyoto Protocol, in part, because it omitted China and India, along with the US, two of the greatest sinner.

Environmentalist are reacting predictably but even UK Prime Minister Tony Blair is less than impressed: “I want to see us now go further from what President Bush laid out.”

“The declaration by President Bush basically restates the U.S. classic line on climate change — no mandatory reductions, no carbon trading and vaguely expressed objectives,“ EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said, according to his spokeswoman. “The U.S. approach has proven to be ineffective in reducing emissions.“

“Mandatory reductions, carbon trading and specific commitment and timetables have allowed the EU to reduce its emissions by 1.5 percent in 2005 under the 1990 levels, while the U.S. has increased them by more than 16 percent in the same period,“ Dimas had said, according to this Reuters article.

The NY Times has a longer piece here.

And an editorial here.