US has 'serious concerns' about Bali agreement

Indonesia News.Net

Sunday 16th December, 2007 (IANS)

The US government has criticized the outcome of the conference on climate change in Bali in a statement issued by the White House.

The agreement reached in Bali was 'a critical first step' for a successor to the Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gas emissions after 2012, but the United States had 'serious concerns' about the fact that only the industrialized countries were being asked to cut emissions.

The report by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) showed that developing countries had an important role to play in limiting greenhouse gas emissions, the statement said Saturday.

'Accordingly, for these negotiations to succeed, it is essential that the major developed and developing countries be prepared to negotiate commitments, consistent with their national circumstances, that will make a due contribution to the reduction of global emissions,' said the statement.

Countries had to be differentiated according to their size, carbon dioxide emissions, energy consumption and their level of economic development, the statement said.

The US leadership said that the special needs and circumstances of the world's poorest countries had to be taken into consideration in international agreements.

The White House welcomed as positive the inclusion in the final statement in Bali of the development of clean technologies also for the developing world and the fight against deforestation.

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