US 'will not speed up emissions cuts'

The top US negotiator on climate change policy has said that domestic politics will not allow Washington to deepen its commitment to cutting carbon pollution over the next decade.

By Our Foreign Staff and Agencies in Paris Last Updated: 11:03PM BST 24 May 2009
Speaking before a two-day meeting on climate change to be attended by ministers from the world's most powerful economies, Todd Stern issued his warning despite growing international pressure. He also rejected China's call for rich nations to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent before 2020, compared to 1990 levels.
"We are jumping as high as the political system will tolerate," said Mr Stern, the US Special Envoy for Climate Change, in an interview with AFP.

"The 40 per cent the Chinese have talked about is not realistic."
Steven Chu, President Barack Obama's new energy secretary, has already faced criticism for taking decisions which appear to fall short of the expectations environmentalists had of the new White House.
The gathering this week will involve preliminary talks before a summit of the members of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (MEF) in July, which is expected to take place after G8 leaders meet in Italy.
Mr Obama proposes to cut US emissions by about six per cent by 2020, and by at least 80 per cent before the middle of the century.
Climate legislation wending its way through the US Congress would meet both these goals, and perhaps more, if unchanged.
But in the run up to United Nations talks in Copenhagen in December charged with delivering a new global climate deal, developing countries such as China and India have said that this is not enough.
Meanwhile, Al Gore, the former US vice president turned climate campaigner, told business and political leaders on Sunday that the world was running out of time to reach a deal on how to fight global warming.
At the World Business Summit on Climate Change in Denmark, he said: "It's time to act now ... We have to do it this year, not next year. The clock is ticking because Mother Nature does not do bailouts.
"To save the future, we have everything we need except the political will."