UN welcomes Bush climate plan, but test in outcome

OSLO (Reuters) - The United Nations welcomed a plan by U.S. President George W. Bush for talks by major emitters about cutting greenhouse gases next month but said the test would be in the outcome.

"The proof of the pudding is in the eating," Yvo de Boer, the head of the Bonn-based U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, told Reuters. "It will be interesting to see what this delivers."

Under pressure for more action to slow climate change, Bush invited the European Union, the United Nations and 11 industrial and developing countries to the September 27-28 meeting in Washington to work toward setting a long-term goal by 2008 to cut emissions.

"I think it's good that Bush is doing something, bringing the major emitters together. I'm excited to see the results," de Boer said. The United States is the top emitter of greenhouse gases, mainly from burning fossil fuels, ahead of China.

Many environmentalists doubt whether Bush will push hard for curbs in emissions after deciding in 2001 not to implement the Kyoto Protocol, the main U.N. plan for curbing greenhouse gases.

Kyoto obliges 35 industrial nations to cut emissions by at least 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12. Bush said it would cost too much and wrongly omitted targets for developing states. The administration's climate goals will allow emissions to rise in coming years and are based on voluntary commitments.

Still, Bush agreed at a Group of Eight summit in June to a need for "substantial cuts" in emissions in future, without setting any firm goals.

FLOODS

An international panel of leading scientists concluded this year that it was "very likely" that global warming is caused by human activities and will spur more floods, heatwaves, disease, more powerful storms and rising seas.

Bush has said that his meeting among major emitters will feed into a U.N. drive to find a broader global climate treaty beyond 2012. The European Union, for instance, plans cuts of 20 percent by 2020 below 1990 levels.

De Boer said that developing nations such as China and India were working out new climate policies. "Developing countries are lining up to say what they will do," he said.

Many countries want a U.N. meeting of environment ministers in Bali, Indonesia, in December, to agree to launch formal talks to work out details of a wider international pact.

"I hear more and more countries saying we need to agree on a road map in Bali. I'm more encouraged," de Boer said.

But he said developing countries had been let down in the past after promises of technology and financial assistance in return for protecting the environment. "They need to feel confident that this won't be the case again," he said.