Bush urges halt of CO2 emission growth by 2025

By Jeremy Pelofsky

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Wednesday called for halting the growth of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2025, but drew quick criticism for offering few ideas on how to do so before his term ends next year.

While trying to shape global climate change talks in Paris this week and the debate in the U.S. Congress later this year, Bush's cautious approach on global warming falls far short of European goals and lawmakers' proposals.

Bush, who leaves office in January, offered broad principles rather than mandates, and said the coal-burning electric utilities -- the biggest single source of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions -- need to find high-tech ways of trapping greenhouse gases.

Bush's proposal -- aimed at influencing upcoming U.S. debate of mandatory carbon dioxide rules in June -- rejects new taxes, abandoning nuclear power and adopting trade barriers.

"If we fully implement our strong new laws, adhere to the principles I've outlined, and adopt appropriate incentives, we will put America on an ambitious new track for greenhouse gas reductions," he said. "We're doing a lot to protect this environment."

The three candidates vying to succeed Bush have made climate proposals that go far beyond his, including a cap on industrial carbon dioxide pollution and an emissions trading system similar to the European Union's.

Environmentalists hope the next president will make Washington a leader in talks to create an international climate treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012 and which the United States has not ratified.

"People are more interested in hearing details of the presidential candidates' thinking on climate change," said Andrei Marcu of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

"Quite frankly, we are looking to the next president for answers, not to Bush," echoed one senior European delegate.

The United States is among the world's biggest emitters of the heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions that spur climate change, but Bush has opposed setting mandatory caps, citing harm to the U.S. economy and inaction by other major producers like China and India.

Democrats in Congress made it clear that Bush would have a fight on his hands for new environmental legislation, arguing that his plan did not go far enough and that he should embrace a cap-and-trade system similar to that used in Europe.

A Bush aide did not rule that out.

CRITICISM FROM ENVIRONMENTALISTS

"If it's true that the president's proposal would allow increases in the nation's global warming pollution for the next 17 years, then it's not a plan, it's a joke," said Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

Environmental groups sharply criticized Bush's proposal.