US faces heat at Bali climate meet

The US, the world’s largest producer of such gases, has resisted calls for strict limits on emissions at the UN climate conference, which is aimed at launching negotiations for an agreement to follow the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012.

That stance suffered a blow when the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee passed a bill on Wednesday to cut US emissions by 70 per cent by 2050 from electric power plants, manufacturing and transportation. The bill now goes to the full Senate.

US climate negotiator Harlan Watson, however, said that would not impact Washington’s position at the international gathering in Bali.

“In our process, a vote for movement of a bill out of committee does not ensure its ultimate passage,” he said. “I don’t know the details, but we will not alter our posture here.”

Republican critics of the bill argued that limiting the emissions could become a hardship because of higher energy costs.

Washington’s isolation in Bali has increased following Australia’s announcement on Monday that it has reversed its opposition to the Kyoto pact and started the ratification process. That left the US as the only industrialised nation to oppose the agreement.

The US Senate action cheered environmentalists and others in Bali clamouring for dramatic action to stop global warming. UN climate chief Yvo de Boer led off his daily briefing on Thursday by hailing the “encouraging sign” from the US.

“This is a very welcome development,” Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists said of the Senate measure. “It shows the increasing isolation of the Bush administration in terms of US policy on this issue.”

David Waskow, of the Oxfam humanitarian agency, said the Senate legislation was a positive signal to developing nations and others in Bali that America may be ready to assume a more active role in battling climate change.