The Toronto Star


December 10 , 2005

Climate compromise reached
Meeting not a campaign ploy, Martin insists
Softens criticism of U.S. refusal
U.S. agrees to deal calling for non-binding talks
Critics see pact on emissions as watered down

Dec. 10, 2005. 01:00 AM
by Peter Gorrie and Peter Calamai

MONTREAL—The United States accepted a compromise deal early today to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

But observers described the agreement, which the U.S. accepted after hours of intense negotiations, as weak and watered-down.

It would let all 189 countries at the conference start a non-binding "dialogue," with no deadlines, on general ideas for how to reduce the emissions that are warming Earth's atmosphere.

But the U.S. move is apparently enough to allow a crucial separate agreement under which Canada and 39 other rich, industrialized nations that have accepted mandatory emissions cuts under the Kyoto Protocol to discuss deeper reductions after the Protocol's first phase expires seven years from now.

The U.S. has rejected the Protocol. It has also vigorously opposed progressively weaker versions of the general agreement — proposed by Environment Minister Stéphane Dion, as conference president — since the UN event opened nearly two weeks ago.

The Americans walked out of negotiations on that deal at midnight Thursday. The talks continued until 6 a.m., and produced yet another revision aimed at appeasing the United States. But the U.S. complained that it still calls for formal discussions, which, it insists, would lead inevitably to negotiations on emissions targets.

The new version calls only for "a dialogue, without prejudice to any future negotiations, commitments, process, framework or mandate."

It also sets no deadline for concluding the dialogue.

The U.S. rebuffed even that version and proposed yet another — even weaker. But pressure mounted all day, as even Japan, which had resisted alienating the Americans, backed away from them.

The European Union mounted the diplomatic equivalent of a full-court press.

"It would be a great pity if the U.S. feels it cannot be part of this move, especially since there seems to be such wide consensus among the members," said Margaret Beckett, the British environment minister who headed the European Union delegation.

Outside Washington, "the U.S. has made substantial progress," said Prime Minister Paul Martin in a joint news conference with former U.S. president Bill Clinton.

The Prime Minister, whose criticism of U.S. obstruction here Wednesday riled the Bush administration, also declared that: "Canadians have to pull up our socks. We have a lot to do."