WASHINGTON – The Bush administration has been working for months to keep an upcoming eight-nation report from endorsing broad policies aimed at curbing global warming, according to domestic and foreign participants, despite the group’s conclusion that Arctic latitudes are facing historic increases in temperature, glacial melting and abrupt weather changes.
State Department representatives have argued that the group, which has spent four years examining Arctic climate fluctuations, lacks the evidence to prepare detailed policy proposals. But several participants in the negotiations, all of whom requested anonymity for fear of derailing the Nov. 24 report, said officials from the eight nations and six indigenous tribes involved in the effort had ample science on which to draft policy.
The recommendations are based on a study, which was leaked last week, that concludes the Arctic is warming much faster than other areas of the world and that much of this change is linked to human-generated greenhouse gas emissions. The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment – produced by a council of nations with Arctic territory that includes the United States, Canada, Russia and several Nordic countries – reflects the work of more than 300 scientists.
Several individuals close to the negotiations said the Bush administration – which opposes mandatory cuts in carbon emissions on the grounds that they will cost American jobs – had repeatedly resisted even mild language that would endorse the report’s scientific findings or call for mandatory curbs on greenhouse gas emissions.
An early draft of the policy statement – which is set to be issued two weeks after the 144-page scientific overview is released Monday – included a paragraph saying that to achieve the goals set under a 1992 international climate change treaty known as the Rio Accord, the “Arctic Council urges the member states to individually and when appropriate, jointly, adopt climate change strategies across relevant sectors. These strategies should aim at the reduction of the emission of greenhouse gases.”
The administration has pushed to drop that section. As one senior State Department official who asked not to be identified put it, “We’re bound by the administration’s position. We’re not going to make global climate policy at the Arctic Council.”
The World Wildlife Fund’s Arctic Program director Samantha Smith said the council’s scientific conclusions, which said temperature increases in some parts of the Arctic increased tenfold compared with the last century’s worldwide average rise of 1 degree Fahrenheit, justified immediate action.
Administration officials said they are hesitant to endorse policy recommendations before examining the full 1,200-page scientific report on the Arctic.
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