US climate snub angers Westminster

Climate change has been blamed for this year's floods

Environment minister Michael Meacher has pledged to press the United States to reverse its opposition to the Kyoto treaty on climate change.

He described the American announcement on Wednesday that it will not implement the 1997 treaty on combating global warming as "exceptionally serious".

There is clearly a power struggle going on in Washington and we have to keep hammering at that.

Michael Meacher
Environment Minister

Former Conservative environment minister John Gummer said the European Union should block other American demands if the US did not move on the "crucial issue".

Mr Meacher labelled the US "the worst offender", saying it had 5% of the world's population but emitted a quarter of all greenhouse gases.

'Unthinkable'

It was "unthinkable" that the Americans should not be part of the treaty.

"The Kyoto protocol is the only game in town...There is no serious possibility of negotiating an acceptable alternative," he told BBC News on Thursday.

Meacher: US decision exceptionally serious

Mr Meacher described the treaty as a "minimum requirement".

It agreed a 5% cut in greenhouse gas emissions when scientists were now advocating a 60% or 70% reduction.

"The EU, and of course the UK, should still proceed to ratify the Kyoto Protocol in 2002 because that is the only way of stopping global warming," he said.

Leverage

"The fact is we do have a lot of leverage. I certainly don't think we should despair or try to ostracise the US as a pariah."

"There is clearly a power struggle going on in Washington and we have to keep hammering at that," he said.

Mr Meacher pointed to President George Bush's planned visits to the EU Summit in Sweden and the G8 Summit in Italy - both in July - as chances to lobby the US administration.

We cannot have a world in which one country decides a future for all of us.

John Gummer
Former Conservative Environment Minister

Mr Gummer, who has been lobbying US Republicans in a cross-party approach, said the American decision would affect Europe's climate.

"We cannot have a world in which one country decides a future for all of us," he told BBC News.

Although the Kyoto treaty had been signed by the Clinton administration, governments had to stand by agreements.

US demands

He continued: "The Americans want a lot of things out of us and we should explain that we are not going to allow our climate to be changed by some one else without having some say out of it.

"When we are talking about their hormone filled beef, or genetically-modified foods, or any of the other things they are looking for, then we are going to have to say we have an agenda too."

The EU, the "world's largest trading community" should make clear the US had to negotiate on climate change if it wanted an agreement on world trade, added Mr Gummer.