Wednesday March 28 2:39 PM ET
U.S. Abandons Kyoto Climate Pact in a Blow to Europe

By Randall Mikkelsen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has effectively abandoned the 1997 Kyoto treaty to fight global warming, which President George W. Bush says is counter to U.S. economic interests, a White House spokesman said on Wednesday.

The move comes as a blow to European hopes that the United States would press ahead on an issue Europe has said is central to relations with the United States.

``The president has been unequivocal. He does not support the Kyoto treaty,'' White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters.

The pact, signed by former President Clinton in 1998 but never introduced in the Senate for ratification, aims to limit industrial emissions of ``greenhouse gases'' thought to cause global warming.

Bush opposes the pact because it does not also bind developing nations to curb emissions and because he believes the costs outweigh the benefits.

Earlier this month the president broke a campaign promise by announcing he would not ask U.S. power plants to cut emissions of carbon dioxide, the gas that a great majority of scientists say is a key factor in the Earth's rising average temperatures.

Bush's carbon dioxide decision followed intense lobbying by coal and oil companies and congressional conservatives who opposed the proposal.

Bush To Meet Schroeder

The White House comments on Wednesday came a day before Bush is to hold talks in Washington with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who asked Bush in a letter last week to abide by the agreement.

The European Union has also asked Bush to press ahead with the deal, saying a joint effort to fight global warming was ``an integral part of relations'' with the European Union.

Asked whether the United States would withdraw from the treaty, Fleischer said it had never come into force, meaning ''there's nothing to withdraw from.''

He said Bush had ordered a Cabinet-level review of global warming issues to develop a U.S. response to the issue.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher later said the United States was not considering formally ``unsigning'' the treaty.

``What we are looking for is how to work with other governments to move forward on this,'' he said.

Fleischer said only one of the 55 nations whose approval is required to put the treaty in effect -- Romania -- had so far acted to comply with the pact.

``It is a signal worldwide that others agree with the president's position on the treaty,'' he said.

In addition, he noted the U.S. Senate had voiced its opposition to any global warming treaty that did not bind developing nations as well as industrial nations, in a resolution passed 95-0 before
the Kyoto pact was reached.

``The concern is that most of the world is exempt from the treaty and the treaty as it currently is written is not in the economic interests of the United States as well, because of the huge costs
involved that are disproportionate to the benefits,'' he said.

Asked whether developing nations should be included in the treaty, he said a position on the issue would await the Cabinet review.

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