By
Associated Press
TRIESTE, Italy - Environment ministers from the world's seven most industrialized countries plus Russia renewed their commitment yesterday to fight global warming and pledged to try to reach an agreement about reducing gas emissions that trap heat inside Earth's atmosphere.
"Trieste was not the place to reopen the negotiating table, but we sent out a strong political message and we found common ground for dialogue," said Willer Bordon, the Italian environment minister and host of the so-called G-8 meeting.
Environmental groups' reaction to the outcome was mixed. Greenpeace said it was as good as could be expected, and World Wildlife Fund said it leaves the Bush administration no choice but to accept a 1997 accord as written.
American and European environmental officials have been at odds over how to implement a 1997 protocol reached in Kyoto, Japan. In that accord, the developed world pledged to reduce heat-trapping carbon emissions by 5.2 percent from 1990 levels. The gases are widely blamed for the greenhouse effect linked to rising temperatures around the planet. The issue topped the Trieste meeting's agenda.
The gas emissions are widely blamed for rising temperatures that have shrunk glaciers, caused sea levels to rise, and hurt plant and animal life. The emissions mostly come from burning fossil fuels for factories, power plants and cars, with carbon dioxide a major component.
The last round of talks on implementing the climate accord broke down after a two-week session in November in the Netherlands.
The key contentious issue was whether countries should be allowed to count the carbon dioxide absorbed by forests and farmlands toward their emissions reduction targets - something the United States, the world's largest polluter - has demanded. But opponents, including the European Union, say that would award credit for essentially doing nothing.
"We commit ourselves ... to strive to reach an agreement on outstanding political issues and to ensure in a cost-effective manner the environmental integrity of the Kyoto protocol," the final document by G-8 countries said yesterday.
Negotiations will resume at a conference scheduled in July in Bonn.
Christie Whitman, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chief, said Saturday that the United States supports the goal of Kyoto but was reviewing its strategy for achieving it.
"We cannot simply go back to where we were at The Hague. We tried that approach and we failed," said Canadian Minister David Anderson, who welcomed the U.S. decision.
Greenpeace said the outcome of the meeting was "the best that could be done at this stage."
"From here, it seems that the rest of G-8 has given the clear signal that while they're willing to wait for the Bush administration to speed up on the issue, they are not willing to wait very long," said Steve Sawyer, a spokesman for Greenpeace Climate Campaign. "But an agreement that includes the United States is better than one that doesn't."
The World Wildlife Fund said in a statement that "G-8 partners have sent a very clear message that the only feasible option for Bush is to accept the Kyoto protocol as written."
Represented at Trieste's three-day meeting were the United States, Italy, Canada, Germany, France, Japan, Britain and Russia as well as the European Commission, the political arm of the European Union.
