U.S. Determined to Pollute

America restated its opposition to limiting greenhouse gas emissions during a conference of more than 100 countries searching for a global solution to climate change. According to the U.S. negotiator: “I certainly got no indication [from the Bush administration] that there’s any change in our position, nor is there likely to be during this presidency….”

AP via Yahoo!:

The two-day conference opened Monday on the eve of a U.S. election that could hand congressional power to Democrats who favor the caps. But any new bills would still face a veto by President Bush, who says the requirements would hamstring U.S. economic growth.

Scientists attribute the past century’s 1-degree rise in average global temperatures in part to the accumulation of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere — byproducts of power plants, automobiles and other fossil fuel-burning sources.

[U.S. negotiator Harlan] Watson said the U.S. is doing better at voluntarily restraining the growth of such gases than are some countries committed to reductions under the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

“With few exceptions, you’re seeing those emissions rise again,” Watson said of countries bound by Kyoto.

Manik Roy, who monitors Congress for the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, a Washington research group, said the world “shouldn’t just give up on the United States until 2008,” when Bush’s term is over.

“There is a huge amount of change going on in Congress at this time” on climate issues, he said.

Link