Living Green

Pacific Rim nations set goals for global warming

SYDNEY —

Leaders of 21 Pacific Rim nations responsible for more than half of the emissions causing global warming set targets Saturday for improving energy efficiency and better managing their forests.

"The world needs to slow, stop and then reverse the growth of global greenhouse gas emissions," members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, a grouping that includes the United States, China and Russia, said in a statement.

The nonbinding "aspirational goals" could be significant if forum members reduce their dependence on fossil fuels.

The United States and Australia are among a handful of nations that have refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 effort by the United Nations to limit global warming by setting emissions reduction targets. Bush and Australian Prime Minister John Howard have argued that abiding by the treaty's limits would be too damaging to economic growth.

Developing nations including China, which some scientists say surpassed the United States last year as the world's top emitter of greenhouse gases, are not required to reduce emissions under the Kyoto treaty until after 2012 and have argued that wealthier countries should bear most of the burden of combating climate change.

The Sydney declaration is aimed at reducing "energy intensity" — the amount of energy each nation requires to run its economy — and reforesting an area roughly the size of Nebraska in the Asia-Pacific region over coming decades.

"A great challenge for our region is to balance our energy needs with action to address the threat of climate change posed by greenhouse gas emissions,"

Though Howard said the declaration "charted a new international consensus for the region and for the world," some experts and activists called the program weak and said it could distract attention from a U.N.-sponsored meeting in December about the future of the Kyoto Protocol.

"George Bush and John Howard are trying to create the impression in both the United States and Australia that they are doing something on climate change when they are really undermining global efforts under the U.N.," said Christine Milne, the chief spokesperson on climate change for Australia's Greens political party.

Environmental action group Greenpeace called the Sydney statement a "distraction from the real action on climate change."

"Only binding targets to reduce greenhouse emissions can save the world from the dangerous impacts of climate change," the group said in a press release.

A recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that global warming "is unequivocal" and predicted global sea levels will rise and hurricanes, floods and droughts will become more intense in coming years.

Howard made addressing climate change the top item at the annual gathering partly because Australia is suffering its worst drought in recorded history, experts said.

Bush also made climate change a key topic in meetings with leaders.

After a private meeting with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Saturday, Bush said his administration is working on a $20 million initiative to slow deforestation in the Southeast Asian country.

Huge tracts of Indonesian forests have been cleared in recent years for logging and for plantations producing palm oil.

Bush thanked Yudhoyono for his "leadership on climate change" and said the United States "wants to help."

Bush left Sydney on Saturday night, one day before the end of the regional gathering, and planned to stop in Hawaii on his return to Washington.