Switzerland critical of Bush climate proposals

The Kyoto Protocol aims to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases Keystone Archive

Switzerland has greeted with scepticism new proposals by President George W Bush to tackle global warming.

Bush’s plan proposes only voluntary measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, believed to cause a rise in global temperatures, as an alternative to the Kyoto Protocol which the United States rejected last year.

Instead of mandatory targets, Bush is proposing tax incentives to encourage industry to adopt cleaner technologies.

The Swiss ambassador for the environment, Beat Nobs, gave a cautious welcome to the proposal, but said it did not go far enough.

“[The proposals] fall short of what we would have liked to see in order for the US to meaningfully participate in a global approach to combating the very real danger of global warning,” Nobs told swissinfo.

Nobs added that the US was effectively “plotting its own course”, as the voluntary plan was not in line with the mandatory limits sought in the 1997 Kyoto accord.

Cutting emissions

The terms of the Protocol, which has been signed by 170 countries, commits industrialised nations to cut carbon dioxide emissions by an average of 5.2 per cent below 1990 levels by 2012.

The US plan, however, sets a relative rather than net reduction in greenhouse gases. Bush rejected the Kyoto treaty last March, saying it would hurt the US economy. He also took exception to the fact that other large polluters such as China and India were exempted.

“We do not see how the proposal will meet the international requirements set to reduce emissions, since it does not contain legally binding requirements,” said Nobs. “We would have hoped that the US would have introduced a national system that was more forceful.”

Nobs said Switzerland would press ahead with its plans to ratify the protocol as soon as possible.

“The best way forward is to set an example,” said Nobs, adding that the international community should keep the doors open to all the countries that had not yet signed the treaty, especially the US.

swissinfo