Euro-ministers condemn America over Kyoto rejection

European environment ministers have condemned America’s rejection of the Kyoto Protocol and its policies on greenhouse gas emissions, calling it a political move to preserve the energy-burning US lifestyle that has nothing to do with economics.

The comments, on the final day of weekend talks by environment ministers of the world’s industrial powers in Alberta, Canada, overshadowed their discussions on how to integrate environmental issues in new global policies for sustainable development.

A final statement by the ministers from G8 nations - the United States, Britain; Canada; France; Germany; Italy; Japan; and Russia - along with the European Union - said the environment continued to be degraded worldwide.

It called for the upcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa to integrate environmental issues in policies for alleviating poverty and promoting economic growth in developing nations.

‘‘Environmental considerations have to be a full part of the thinking, and not an afterthought,’’ said Canadian environment minister David Anderson, the host of the talks.

A small protest yesterday, with several dozen people, including some dressed as endangered spotted owls, marching to the hotel in Banff to call for protecting forests, was the lone demonstration of the weekend.

Canada had tried to prevent the Kyoto Protocol dispute from dominating the meeting. The formal agenda made no mention of the Kyoto agreement that requires reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, but it came up in every discussion and was the focus of a breakfast meeting yesterday, delegates said.

European ministers expressed their dissatisfaction with the US stance on the issue, calling climate change an international problem that required an international agreement with full participation by such a major emitter of greenhouse gases.

‘‘The basic problem is that the United States has chosen to stand outside the (Kyoto) protocol,’’ said Margot Wallstrom, the European Commission environment commissioner. She and Germany’s Jurgen Trittin both called the Bush administration’s incentive-driven programme intended to induce voluntary reductions inadequate.

‘‘We don’t think it’s enough that the United States is doing,’’ Wallstrom said.

Trittin said he had trouble understanding US arguments that Kyoto restrictions would harm the American economy, saying Germany had reduced greenhouse gas emissions without significant problems.

‘‘We are convinced that reduction of carbon dioxide is not a harm to the economy,’’ Trittin said.

He also said the Bush administration’s policy was politically motivated to prevent substantial changes in US consumption. Cheap energy in the past created a US lifestyle that consumed more energy than other countries, and forcing too much change too quickly would be politically dangerous, Trittin said.

Christie Whitman, the US Environmental Protection Agency administrator, acknowledged the deep differences about US policy but said the Bush administration’s refusal to ratify the Kyoto Protocol ‘‘is not changing’’.

She said the United States wanted to reduce the intensity of its greenhouse gas emissions by 18% over the next 15 years, a period in which the US economy was expected to double in size. Whitman said Washington also wanted to work with other countries on how to achieve a similar result - stronger economies with less pollution.

Canada, which once fully supported ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, is now wavering due to energy industry concerns that Canadian companies would face a disadvantage against US competitors.

The European ministers all urged Canada to ratify the protocol this year and said they expected that to happen. Wallstrom, however, rejected a Canadian idea to get credit for reducing emissions for natural gas exports - a cleaner source of energy than oil or coal - to the United States.

To take effect, the Kyoto accord must be ratified by 55 countries, including industrialised countries representing at least 55% of carbon dioxide emissions. With America out, just about every other industrialised country must ratify.