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British FM Insists US Being Pressed Over Kyoto Treaty
London (AFP) Oct 12, 2004 Britain is "working hard" on the United States to pressure it into agreeing to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on Tuesday. Despite continued "major disagreement" between London and Washington over US refusals to sign up to the treaty, signs were emerging that the US view was gradually shifting, Straw told parliament. "The government is working hard to re-engage the United States on the urgency of tackling climate change despite our differences over Kyoto," Straw told the House of Commons after one MP accused him in a question of taking too soft a line over the issue. "We are making every effort to convince United States policy-makers, at all levels, that the right environmental policy, set out in Kyoto, is also good for business," he said. "We have to maintain our pressure, presenting them with the evidence, because their people will be as much at risk as the rest of the world if there is not international action." The United States is refusing to sign up to the 1997 accord, which requires industrialised signatory nations to cut down on their output of so-called "greenhouse" gases, blamed for global warming. Washington argues that the pact is too costly, and that it is unfair since developing countries are not held to specific pollution cuts. At the end of last month, Moscow ended years of hesitation and decided to go ahead with ratifying the treaty, but US officials have insisted that Washington will stand firm. Straw told parliament, however, that the American position was less clear-cut than it seemed. "The headlines that the United States is against Kyoto, which are true, tend to obscure the fact that underneath there is a raging debate taking place and an increasing support for the position which we in the United Kingdom are taking and which, I am glad to say, we have now been joined in by Russia, which means the Kyoto Protocol can now come into force," he said. The issue of climate will be a "major priority" when Britain holds the rotating presidencies of the European Union and the Group of Eightindustrialised nations' club next year, Straw added. All rights reserved. � 2004 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express Earth Observation News - Suppiliers, Technology and Application
New Legislation Initiated To Support Commercial Remote Sensing Industry
New York NY (SPX) Jan 11, 2006The importance of remotely sensed data and technologies to support natural disasters has prompted attention and action in Washington. New initiatives and legislation authorizing appropriations to the remote sensing industry will be discussed at Strategic Research Institute's U.S. Commercial Remote Sensing Industry conference, scheduled for February 9-10, 2006 in Washington D.C. |
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