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George Bush
George Bush speaks in Washington. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty
George Bush speaks in Washington. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty

Bush's emission plan 'a delaying tactic'

This article is more than 16 years old

Environmental groups today condemned George Bush's proposed global plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, labelling it a stalling tactic lacking concrete details.

The US president's proposals, outlined in a speech yesterday, appeared to cast severe doubt on international efforts for a UN-brokered successor to the Kyoto protocol on climate change, which ends in 2012.

It also seemingly hit European hopes before a G8 summit in Germany next week that industrialised nations will make a firm commitment to halving their emissions by 2050.

Environmentalists on both sides of the Atlantic condemned Mr Bush's speech as vague and insubstantial and unlikely to herald any real progress before he leaves office at the start of 2009.

"This is a classic spoiler," said Robin Oakley from Greenpeace. "The G8 should be debating global mandatory emissions caps, not facilitating an ad hoc conference hastily proposed by Bush that's designed to kick this issue into the long grass until he leaves office."

The Friends of the Earth director, Tony Juniper, called the US plan "a transparent attempt to derail negotiations that are already going on in the G8 and the United Nations.

"If the president wishes to be taken seriously on the subject of climate change, he needs to arrive in Germany next week with a willingness to negotiate rather than a determination to wreck talks which are already going on," he said.

The sentiment was echoed by the US National Environmental Trust, which said Mr Bush did not have any credibility on the issue.

"The White House is just trying to hide the fact that the president is completely isolated among the G8 leaders by calling vaguely for some agreement next year, right before he leaves office," said the group's president, Philip Clapp.

Oxfam, which speaks out on climate change as part of its wider campaigns on global poverty, said it was "welcome" that Mr Bush had acknowledged the need for action.

"However, we feel very strongly that any US plan must work collaboratively within the existing UN framework, to ensure the best possible outcome," said Antonio Hill from the group.

"Going into the G8 meeting, we are in the unenviable situation of the world's two biggest polluters - the EU and US - backing different approaches to solving climate change. This is a recipe for stalemate and inaction."

The prime minister, Tony Blair - who made tackling climate change one of the central pillars of the 2005 G8 summit at Gleneagles - welcomed Mr Bush's plan in broad terms. Mr Bush's speech was "extremely important", he told reporters in South Africa after meeting the country's president, Thabo Mbeki.

"Let's be clear. For the first time, America is saying absolutely clearly it wants to be part of such a global deal," he said.

"Secondly, it is saying that it will support a target for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and thirdly, it's understanding that the only way this is going to happen on a fair basis is through the transfer of the changing technologies and scientific development.

"That is the only way we are going to get this problem resolved. I think next week is potentially a very big week indeed."

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