U.S. agrees to watered-down declaration

U.S. agrees to watered-down declaration:

Conference reaches climate deal
U.S. agrees to watered-down declaration
Dec. 10, 2005. 08:25 AM
PETER GORRIE
TORONTO STAR

MONTREAL -- Weary delegates, politicians and lobby group members cheered early this morning as the United Nations climate change conference finally passed its last two major decisions after two days and nights of gruelling talks.

The main negotiating logjam broke around midnight, when the United States agreed to a watered-down declaration that all 189 countries at the conference will start an open-ended “dialogue” aimed at finding new ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

That move, in turn, allowed the passage of a crucial separate deal, under which Canada and 39 other industrialized nations bound by emissions-cut targets under the Kyoto Protocol will begin to negotiate deeper cuts for after the Protocol’s first phase expires in 2012.

The U.S. had objected to several increasingly weak versions of the dialogue agreement during the two week conference, and walked out of the talks Thursday night.

But under intense pressure from most other countries represented here, it finally relented, signing on to a final version after yet more revisions.

Environmental groups were enthusiastic about the conference’s outcome. “This is a set of agreements that may well save the planet,” said Elizabeth May, executive director of the Sierra Club of Canada.

They were equally pleased by the last-minute American compromise.

“The Bush administration blinked. The world should remember that,” said Bill Hare, policy director with Greenpeace International.

“They miscalculated and underestimated the will of countries to move forward in combatting climate change,”said Jennifer Morgan of WWF, formerly the World Wildlife Fund.

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