May 2001
When President Bush reneged on his promise to regulate CO2 emissions from power plants and turned his back on the Kyoto Protocol, he promised that the US would remain committed to fighting global warming. Today, it is clear he did not mean it. The Bush energy plan, if implemented, would send U.S greenhouse gas emissions through the roof, increasing overall emissions by 35% or more, and emissions from power plants as much as 65%. If this plan is enacted, the fight against global warming may well be over.
The plan places the US clearly in breach of its obligations under the UN Climate Convention, which President Bush (senior) ratified
in 1992. This treaty requires industrialized countries to develop plans to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels. US emissions are currently about 15% above 1990 levels, and would rise to 50% above 1990 levels under the Bush plan. Besides breaching the specific obligations of the treaty, the plan violates international and domestic law by defeating the object and purpose of the treaty. The president ofthe international climate negotiations, Dutch Environment Minister Jan Pronk, has called the plan a “disastrous development” for international efforts to slow output of global warming gases.
The White House acknowledges that greenhouse gas emissions are directly linked to global warming. Surely they know that global warming inevitably leads to rising sea levels, violent storms, melting glaciers, loss of biodiversity, and adverse impacts on human health. The message from today’s action appears to be: the President of the United States just doesn’t care.