Kyoto Treaty flawed: Bush

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, JUNE 12. While maintaining that the Kyoto Treaty on the environment was ``fatally flawed in fundamental ways'', the President, Mr. George W Bush called for initiatives to study the causes of global warming and to develop technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The administration has established the U.S. Climate Change Research Initiative that seeks to identify priority areas where additional investments can be made. The President stressed that the National Climate Change Technology Initiative will also strengthen research at universities and national laboratories. As he set out for Europe - which has been sharply critical of the administration's environmental policies - Mr. Bush stressed that any treaty on the environment must include countries like China and India and that the United States was prepared to work with these countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and maintain economic growth.

``The world's second largest emitter of greenhouse gases is China. Yet, China was entirely exempted from the requirements of the Kyoto Protocol. India and Germany are among the top emitters. Yet, India was also exempt from Kyoto,'' the President remarked. Mr. Bush's argument was that instead of setting targets on emissions, which in his view were ``arbitrary and not based on science'', the U.S. must lead the way by advancing the science on climate change ``and creating partnerships within our hemisphere and beyond to monitor and measure and mitigate emissions''.

The President's proposed Climate Change Research Initiative will fund high-priority areas in climate change science over the next five years and strengthen research co- ordination between institutes in the U.S., Japan and Europe and other countries to understand better the causes and impacts of climate change. ``The Kyoto Protocol was fatally flawed in fundamental ways. But the process used to bring nations together to discuss our joint response to climate change is an important one,'' Mr. Bush said while launching the initiative.

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