Stage set for meet on climate change

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

UNITED NATIONS, APRIL 18. Invitations have gone out to as many as 40 Environment Ministers and senior officials of the developed and developing world for a one day meeting in New York on April 21 on the issue of international negotiations on Climate Change. The meeting, which is closed to the media, is under the chairmanship of Mr. Jan Pronk, head of the United Nations Climate Change negotiations, who is also the Dutch Environment Minister.

Mr. Pronk has expressed hopes that the United States understands the Kyoto Climate Change treaty which has been rejected by the Bush administration. The Dutch Minister is arguing that there are several misunderstandings regarding the Kyoto Pact, including Washington's assertion that abiding by the protocol would be harmful to its economic interests.

The argument made by Mr. Pronk is that the U.S. stands to harm itself if it stayed out of the Kyoto process as its credibility would take a beating. The bottom line for the U.N. Climate Change head is that Kyoto is the ``only game in town.'' The Bush administration is neither impressed by this view nor appears to be overly concerned that Europe may be going about its own way in coming to terms with the Kyoto Protocol as it stands, or modified after negotiations.

The U.S. will not be represented at the New York meeting by Ms. Christine Todd Whitman, Administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency. Rather, the American delegation is likely to be comprised of ``senior officials.'' Ms. Whitman will be in Quebec City for the Summit of the Americans it is maintained. Even otherwise, it is quite doubtful if she would have made her way to the meeting given the tone of the Bush administration vis- a-vis the Kyoto Accords and the future.

Ms. Whitman was at the White House on Tuesday to talk about the Bush administration's new lead reporting requirements and was asked, expectedly, on the thinking in Europe on the Kyoto protocol. ``... the administration has never been in the position of telling Europe what they should or shouldn't do. And if they want to continue to negotiate that way, they will enter into those negotiations,'' Ms. Whitman responded.

That said, the top EPA official also argued that this Republican administration is very committed to a discussion - and international discussion - on global climate change. ``And we feel that we need to engage in that discussion now and try to see if there isn't a way to move these things forward so that in a market based way, in a way that's using technology, that takes advantage of technology, we're engaged and we're actually going to help to clean the environment,'' Ms. Whitman argued.

She also took the opportunity to point out that the Kyoto Protocol was signed by 54 countries and that to date only one has ratified it. ``There are a lot of other countries around the world that have serious concerns about some of the targets and time frames that were in Kyoto, about things such as sink and the credit to be given for sinks,'' she added.

The White House - for that matter Ms. Whitman herself - played down the notion that her appearing for a press event was itself an effort by the administration to ``rehabilitate'' its standing on the environment... this is a part of an ongoing process; that you have seen other Cabinet members who have talked about other issues here. I am not the first, and I won't be the last,`` she remarked.

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