Expansionary Institute

Michael Zey
futurist3000@aol.com

But the failure of the climate change talks in the Hague on Saturday was just the latest in a long line of disputes between the world's two largest economic blocs.

This time the talks focused on setting the rules for countries to cut "greenhouse gas" pollution, which scientists say is warming the planet and will wreak havoc on weather over the next century.

"The United States was bull-headed," said Bill Hare, climate policy director for Greenpeace International. "The U.S. thought that the EU would do a deal at any price. It was wrong."

Strong support among the European public for action on climate change came up against a U.S. team bent on securing flexible rules that would keep financial costs from crippling its economic growth.

"The United States misjudged the EU and it always does because Washington doesn't understand the high level of public concern in Europe about the environment," said Hare.

Others pointed to the sometimes uncomfortable relationships inside the 15-member EU, and questioned whether the bloc at its present size has the ability to transform itself into a cohesive force.

"The crisis of this conference is also a crisis of European governance," said Michael Grubb, professor of energy policy and climate change at London's Imperial College and an EU delegate to the Hague talks.

"The EU did not behave as a coherent body and did not behave as independent states. It's stuck in between," Grubb said.

That syndrome means efforts to forge treaties face structural barriers as well.

"There's no doubt (climate negotiations) are getting harder," said James Cameron, attorney at Baker & Mackenzie and an independent advisor to Britain at the talks.

"And the EU (structure) makes it very difficult for this kind of close-in talks," he said.

The fiasco in the Hague recalled previous failures such as the protest-scarred World Trade Organisation talks in Seattle last year. Billed to be the "Millennium Round" of trade talks, the EU and United States failed even to agree on an agenda for future talks, never mind reaching agreement on simmering disputes over bananas, beef and genetically modified foods.

"We have to learn the skill of negotiating," said Jan Pronk, the head of the Hague conference and Dutch environment minister.

"Many people think they are negotiating while they are only repeating a previous position, only making a statement," he said.

U.S. BLAMES EU

The United States placed the blame squarely on the EU's shoulders.

"Frankly we saw a lack of commitment on the part of the EU to do a deal in the Hague," a senior U.S. official said.

As the negotiations broke down, a last ditch effort to craft a face-saving political deal faded as the two sides, which had neared an agreement early on Saturday morning, moved further apart in the final hours.

"We don't just want a political agreement, we want to have a clear idea of the consequences of those decisions," said Dominique Voynet, French environment minister and the head of the EU team at the talks.

But the U.S. team said failure to set detailed rules on how countries should cut their pollution levels left the conference with few choices on how to keep momentum going on the issue.

"Even if we couldn't get an overall agreement, just getting a political statement would have been a great step forward," the U.S. source said.

The chief U.S. complaint centred on the talks that took place in the early hours of Saturday morning, when EU and U.S. negotiators ended a meeting with an apparent deal in hand, only to have dissenting states in the EU flatly reject the U.S. proposals.

The EU negotiators failed to get a mandate from all 15 members, the U.S. said, which eventually undermined the talks.

"I don't know how the EU works, but it didn't seem to work very well in these negotiations," the official said.

Voynet rejected such accusations, because the EU pollution cuts laid out three years ago at the climate conference in Kyoto were for the bloc as a whole, which were then divided among the members.

"Because the EU shares out its emissions reductions (between member states), we can't just negotiate as a lone rider," she told a news conference.

10:46 11-26-00

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