UPDATE - Canada wants US greenhouse gas goals to be vigorous
Date: 08-Feb-02
Country: CANADA
Author: Lesley Wroughton
Anderson told a conference in Toronto he hoped the United States will outline its alternative to the Kyoto treaty by next month, a year after U.S. President George Bush withdrew his country, the world's biggest polluter, from the U.N.-backed climate treaty.
"I fully expect (the U.S.) approach to be robust and vigorous, I fully expect it to be heavily based on technology, and it may have different time frames from Kyoto, but I fully expect it to be a very interesting program for us, not just to study but also to be involved in," Anderson said.
Canada supplies about 16 percent of the natural gas used in the United States, over half of Canada's total production.
In its first indication of its greenhouse gas policy after it rejected Kyoto, the United States said on Tuesday it wants to a set a "reasonable, gradual" goal to reduce emissions and link the moves to economic output.
"I don't think we should be too negative yet, they might surprise," Anderson said. The Bush administration has been criticized by green activists and its opposition for policies, including its proposed energy bill, that critics say are harmful to the environment.
Anderson also reaffirmed Ottawa's commitment to Kyoto and said he hoped Canada will ratify it by June, or before a key global earth summit in South Africa in September.
Last year there was doubt if Canada would push through with the treaty after the United States withdrew from Kyoto.
Environmentalists and scientists been waiting for Ottawa to ratify the deal, fretting that the main greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, emitted from smokestacks and tailpipes is the major culprit behind global warming.
The Kyoto treaty will not become legally binding until 55 nations ratify it. So far none of the major industrial powers has done so, five years since the treaty was first brokered.
"We hope that the ratification will take place prior to the G8 (in June) or prior to Johannesburg, and certainly we hope it will happen in 2002. But we are not wedded to 2002, it is not a requirement," Anderson told the conference.