U.S. opposes fixing greenhouse gas cuts at G8

French President Nicolas Sarkozy suggested Europeans would press Washington until the very end on the divisive issue."We need quantifiable targets in the final text," Sarkozy told reporters. "It is an extremely important point and I intend to talk to the president of the United States about it as early as this evening," he added.It appeared the United States could accept language calling for "substantial" reductions in global emissions in the long term, according to a draft G8 document written in late May.Bush said his plan announced last week for talks among the top 15 emitters of greenhouse gases with the aim of agreeing long-term reductions by the end of 2008 would "fold into the U.N. framework" on tackling climate change.Many European nations had expressed concerns that Bush's plan might undermine U.N. talks on a global deal to replace the Kyoto Protocol, the main U.N. plan until 2012 for curbing greenhouse gases released mainly by burning fossil fuels.
The United States is the only G8 nation outside Kyoto."I also come with a strong desire to work with you on a post-Kyoto agreement about how we can achieve major objectives" including cuts in greenhouse gases, Bush told Merkel after a lunch of veal schnitzel and asparagus.Merkel, who brokered an EU deal in March which includes binding cuts in emissions, has also been pushing for a G8 pledge to limit warming of global temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), seen as a threshold for dangerous changesFrench President Nicolas Sarkozy suggested Europeans would press Washington until the very end on the divisive issue.
It appeared the United States could accept language calling for "substantial" reductions in global emissions in the long term, according to a draft G8 document written in late May.Bush said his plan announced last week for talks among the top 15 emitters of greenhouse gases with the aim of agreeing long-term reductions by the end of 2008 would "fold into the U.N. framework" on tackling climate change.Many European nations had expressed concerns that Bush's plan might undermine U.N. talks on a global deal to replace the Kyoto Protocol, the main U.N. plan until 2012 for curbing greenhouse gases released mainly by burning fossil fuels.But she may have to settle for an expression of U.S. support for United Nations efforts to combat climate change and an agreement to tackle emissions at a later date."I think we all know that the goals agreed by the European Union cannot be accepted by the entire world," she said.
Officials were also involved in last-minute wrangling over commitments to fighting poverty in Africa, another of Merkel's G8 priorities. Leaders will refer to pledges made at the Gleneagles summit in 2005 to double development aid by 2010.

But Italy and Canada are resisting concrete language in the communique on a pledge to lift overall annual aid by $50 billion (25 billion pounds) by 2010 and also, with Japan, blocking country-specific figures.Near the venue, police used water cannon to disperse groups of protesters and clear roads, detaining some 160 activists. Eight police officers were injured in the clashes.Some marchers damaged a rail track used to shuttle officials in and out of the summit site. Others blocked roads, temporarily cutting off all ground access to the venue."We had a super plan and we surprised the police, who didn't know how to stop us," said Gunar Finke, a student from the southern German city of Freiburg.