Tiempo Climate Newswatch

George W Bush, president of the United States, will host a conference in Washington DC in September to discuss his plan for a technology-based approach to the climate problem. "It is important that the United States is bringing together the group of major emitters to talk about the kind of reductions they can commit to," said Yvo de Boer, who heads the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). But, he continued, "what is even more important is the United States' indication that ultimately their intention is to bring this back to the United Nations process."

Environmentalists are concerned that Bush is attempting to undermine the United Nations process. The meeting will be held three days after a high-level event at the United Nations on climate change, hosted by Ban Ki-moon, United Nations secretary-general. Martin Khor of the Third World Network reckons that the "clash of the two events is the latest sign that the United States President is planning to establish a global framework for dealing with climate change that could be inside or outside of the United Nations system."

The Bush administration has been ordered by a Federal judge to release an updated climate change research plan and an impact assessment for the United States. A year overdue, the current research plan must be updated by March 1st, following a 1990 law that calls for a revised programme every three years. The last impact assessment should have been updated in 2004.

"It's a huge victory holding the administration accountable for its attempts to suppress science," responded Kassie Siegel, representing the Center for Biological Diversity. The Center, with Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, filed suit in November to force the release of the two reports.

Greenpeace has accused Australia and the United States of attempting to drive the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum into an "anti-Kyoto agenda". The accusation is based on a leaked outline of a statement on climate change to be released by APEC leaders at the forthcoming summit in Sydney, Australia.

The draft statement advocates an "aspirational" goal for energy efficiency that would not translate into targets for individual APEC economies and would not be legally binding or enforceable. "It’s a continuation of business as usual - coal and oil use," said Catherine Fitzpatrick of Greenpeace Australia Pacific. "We’re in a really sad situation. We have two nations writing a declaration that is 'made in the USA' and covered in a thick coating of Australian coal dust," she continued.