US Pressure Weakening Proposed G-8 Curb on Global Warming
US pressure is weakening a proposal to curb world greenhouse gas emissions and reduce global warming that is to be discussed next week at the Group of Eight summit next month in Scotland, he Washington Post said.
Negotiators in the past month have agreed to delete language in the summit's final statement that details the mechanism of global warming, sets ambitious targets to cut carbon dioxide emissions and stricter environmental standards in World Bank-funded power projects, according to documents obtained by the newspaper.
One of the world's biggest contributors to global warming, the United States has striven to edit US government and international reports on the threat of climate change in support of its contention that mandatory carbon dioxide cuts are unnecessary.
... The Washington Post gave an example of US-instigated changes in the G8 final statement on the environment: a section initially cited "increasingly compelling evidence of climate change, including rising ocean and atmospheric temperatures, retreating ice sheets and glaciers, rising sea levels, and changes to ecosystems."
It added: "Inertia in the climate system means that further warming is inevitable. Unless urgent action is taken, there will be a growing risk of adverse effects on economic development, human health and the natural environment, and of irreversible long-term changes to our climate and oceans."
Instead, the daily said, US negotiators substituted a sentence that reads, "Climate change is a serious long term challenge that has the potential to affect every part of the globe."
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