29 January 2008 - Washington,
DC, United States — In his State of the
Union address last night, Bush made it clear
what we've been saying all along: He has
no plan to fight global warming, and is
set on leaving a legacy of neglect, obstruction
and destruction
when it comes to climate change. On the
eve of Bush’s bogus "Major Emitters
Meeting", activists have taken to the
US capitol to call attention to Bush’s disastrous
policies and his plan to put a wrench in
the UN's process.
Major Economies Meeting
a Sham
After being booed and
jeered in Bali for trying to block a successful
outcome at the UN's meeting on climate change
there last month, the Bush administration
continues to push its alternative Major
Economies Meeting (aka Major Emitters Meeting)
this week in Hawaii. The administration
hopes to use this side meeting as an opportunity
to replace the Kyoto Protocol's legally
binding emissions reductions with voluntary
measures only.
If the President was
serious about leading the fight on global
warming, he would stop trying to block the
success of the UN process and commit to
a cap on greenhouse gas emissions in the
US. Instead, he continues to keep the United
States standing alone as the only industrialized
country that refuses to ratify the Kyoto
Protocol.
Monumental Disaster
Greenpeace activists
gathered on the National Mall the night
before the Major Economies Meeting and turned
the Washington Monument into a memorial
to Bush's failed legacy on global warming.
The activists projected
on the Washington Monument the message,
"U.S. Global Warming Plan: Hell and
High Water", accompanied by an image
depicting rising sea levels at the base.
Ironically, rising sea levels from global
warming threaten the very picturesque islands,
like Bali and Hawaii, the Bush administration
is fond of visiting to talk and do nothing.
Why "volunteerism"
is a failed policy
Binding emission targets
for industrialized countries are the basis
of any meaningful global agreement to fight
climate change. Bush just wants to cross
his fingers and hope that technological
progress saves us. All he is willing to
tell the world is: "Hey, guys, we will
do our best". That will not be good
enough.
As the German Chancellor
Angela Merkel observed last year, "I
don't believe that it's enough to just agree
that everyone will do their best. I don't
believe that would yield an impressive result."
And right she is. In
2002, Bush set a voluntary target of reducing
US energy intensity 18 percent by 2012.
But greenhouse gas emissions are projected
to increase by 12 percent over that period.
Voluntarism simply doesn’t work.
All of the leading Democratic
Presidential candidates and two of the three
top Republican candidates support binding
limits on greenhouse gas emissions through
a cap and trade system. US businesses also
support binding emission caps. More than
two dozen of the largest US companies -
such as Ford, General Electric, GM, Dupont,
Duke Energy and Chrysler - are calling for
domestic cap and trade legislation to start
cutting American emissions now.
Bush is a 'lame duck'
and will be out of office when the next
global climate agreement will be made in
Copenhagen in 2009.
The world can't afford
falling for Bush's Hawaii distraction. Countries
attending the meeting should resist Bush's
ploy and commit to real climate action now.
The countries participating
in Bush's meeting are: Japan, France, Germany,
Italy, the United Kingdom, China, Canada,
India, Brazil, South Korea, Mexico, Russia,
Australia, Indonesian, and South Africa.
While the countries most at risk from impacts
of climate change - such as small island
developing states like Tuvalu - are not
even invited to be at the table.
