Merkel won't compromise with Bush on climate, doesn't see G8 deal

Europe News

Jun 2, 2007, 11:27 GMT

Berlin - Germany is not prepared to budge on the goal of limiting global warming, Chancellor Angela Merkel says in an interview published Saturday, adding she does not expect agreement with the United States on climate change at this week's G8 summit. There would be no compromise on the European Union goal of limiting the rise in global temperatures to two Celsius degrees by 2050, Merkel told Der Spiegel news magazine, days before she hosts the G8 gathering in Heiligendamm. 'If the US does not move, probably the others will wait. I do not expect a solution this week,' the chancellor said. Merkel flatly rejected the possibility of accepting a four-degree rise, as opposed to the two degrees outlined by the recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). 'That would be exactly what I would call a dirty compromise. We have to orientate ourselves to the findings of the scientists and not soften them,' she said. Compromises could be found on the measures to be taken, 'but I cannot negotiate on the two degrees,' she said. Merkel said officials were wrestling with the issue of climate change, which she has put at the top of the G8 agenda, 'right up to the last minute.' 'You can take it from me that I will not allow the scientifically based findings, such as those of the IPCC report of the United Nations, to be watered down,' she said. The IPCC issued its third report in May, outlining how global warming could be contained to between 2.0 and 2.8 Celsius degrees, as long as measures were taken to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Referring to US policy to rely on technological innovation to curb emissions and a new initiative from President George W Bush to draw up a scheme involving only a group of 10 to 15 major emitters, Merkel said she backed definite targets. Proceeding through the UN was 'non-negotiable,' she added. 'We Europeans find it more convincing, as a motor of change, to agree on ambitious goals at an international level and to implement our measures accordingly,' the chancellor said. On Thursday Bush outlined a plan to limit emissions within a group countries, including the industrialized world and rapidly growing large economies like India and China. Merkel did not reject Bush's initiative. 'We are not at the end of talks. I am confident that we will see movement in the negotiations,' she said, but she acknowledged that some themes on the agenda for discussion would not be mentioned in the final G8 document when the summit ends on Friday. A senior US official said Merkel had been 'positive' about Bush's initiative, when the two leaders discussed climate change in a video conference Friday. Bush's initiative in effect rebuffed EU calls, led by Merkel, for a G8 commitment to cut global greenhouse gas emissions to 50 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050. Merkel has made clear that the EU wanted a UN-led process to replace the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions, which the US has not ratified, when it runs out in 2012. © 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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i'm impressed...Jun 2nd, 2007 - 12:17:52

good for merkel!

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Merkel won't compromise with Bush on climate, doesn't see G8 deal

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