U.S. again rejects carbon dioxide limits

Abstract

The Bush Administration is under heavy fire from some environmental groups and members of Congress for continuing to refuse to set specific targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions—most recently at a global warming conference held in early November in the Netherlands. Yet other observers say the U.S. is hesitating only because it does not want to preempt ongoing efforts of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and likely will endorse restrictions on greenhouse gases within a year. Most of the delegations from the 71 countries that attended the recent Dutch-sponsored Conference on Atmospheric Pollution & Climatic Change voted for a proposal that would require nations to freeze their emission of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide at current levels by the turn of the century. Because emissions from the burning of fossil fuels have been increasing, the freeze actually would turn out to be a cut. But the U.S. delegation—led by Environmental Protection Agency Administrator ...