US attacked over global warming

Chirac lambasted the US for its environmental record

French President Jacques Chirac has urged the United States to do more to tackle global warming.

Speaking at the opening of the crucial second week of the World Climate Conference in The Hague, Mr Chirac criticised the US for its lavish consumption of fossil fuels.

"The United States alone produces a quarter of the world's emissions," Mr Chirac told world leaders and environmental officials from more than 180 countries.

Each American emits three times more greenhouse gases than a Frenchman

Jacques Chirac

BBC correspondents say Mr Chirac's comments emphasise the deep divide between Europe and America on the issue of how countries can implement cuts in emissions of carbon-based gases which many scientists believe are warming the planet.

Some governments have accused the US of trying to wriggle out of commitments made at the 1997 Kyoto summit.

The French president said no country could shirk its share of responsibility in this regard. "I call upon the United States of America, therefore, to cast aside their doubts and hesitations."

He said it was time the US joined with other leading industrialised nations to work for a successful transition to energy-efficiency.

Implementing Kyoto

The Kyoto Protocol commits nearly 40 developed countries to an overall cut in their greenhouse emissions of 5.2%, compared with their 1990 levels, by some time between 2008 and 2012.

Thousands of protesters have gathered to call for real action on global warming

It cannot take effect until its signatories have approved its contents and a number of major polluting countries have ratified it.

Officials from around the world have five days to try to settle wide-ranging disagreements about how it should be implemented.

One of the stumbling blocks at the talks, which began a week ago, has been the insistence of the US and a number of other developed countries that they should be allowed to achieve much of their Kyoto reduction targets without actually reducing their emissions at all.

Kyoto commitments

Europe to cut emissions by 8%

Japan by 6%

US by 7%

The protocol offers ways for them to do this, for example, by buying emission rights from countries which cannot use them, or by funding clean energy schemes in developing countries.

The European Union, and most environmental campaign groups, say the spirit of the protocol demands real cuts in emissions

Disagreements

As politicians were getting down to work on Monday, it emerged that there are no fewer than 37 areas of disagreement which need to be settled.

Politicians have less than a week to reach accord

These range from what punishments there should be if countries fail to meet their targets on cutting emissions to the definition of a forest.

Scientists say greenhouse gases linger in the lower atmosphere, trapping heat radiated from the Earth's surface.

Computer models predict global temperatures will rise as a result over the coming century, inflicting potentially catastrophic climate change.