Germans Prepare To Fight U.S. On Climate Change

In a diplomatic offensive, the chancellery and the Foreign Ministry will hold meetings this week with leading American and Asian officials, particularly the Japanese. Japan, which has begun to take the lead in trying to reduce climate warming in the region, is a member of the G-8, along with Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and the United States. The summit meeting takes place June 6 to 8. Merkel, hoping for a successful summit meeting to consolidate her domestic popularity, will try to rescue the talks by seeking a compromise that will not completely dilute her goal of reducing emissions of greenhouse gases aimed at limiting warming of the environment. She also wants the next UN conference on climate change, scheduled to take place in Bali in December, to start negotiating a follow-up to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. The United States, so far, has opposed both proposals. Merkel has won support from Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan. But the United States "has serious, fundamental concerns about this draft statement," according to a leaked American document cited by Greenpeace. In particular, the United States, which has not ratified the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, said it did not want to be tied down to targets designed to reduce carbon emissions or even raise overall energy efficiency by 20 percent by 2020. The protocol calls on the 35 participating countries to cut their carbon emissions by 5.2 percent from 1990 levels by 2012. Merkel has already tried to dampen expectations about any breakthrough on the global warming issue during a speech last week to Parliament. She said she did not know "whether we will succeed in Heiligendamm." http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/27/news/environ.php http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2007/04/26/flick-off-campaign.html

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