Advice on Climate Change Policy

FOREIGN RELATIONS

Fifty foreign policy and national security experts on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean have produced and signed a “Compact Between the U.S. and Europe” as a primer for President George W. Bush as he embarks on what is being characterized as a fence-mending trip to Europe starting on Feb. 22. The document was released on Feb. 17 at a press conference at the Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C.

Written in the format of an agreement between governments, the 11-page primer from the ad hoc group of policy experts tackles such thorny issues as climate change, the Geneva Conventions, Iraq, Iran, peace and democracy in the Middle East, China, the developing world, and the United Nations. On climate change, the primer would have the U.S. agreeing to set up binding limits on emissions of greenhouse gases in major industries, power generation, and transportation.

The primer spells out other scenarios: The European Union would agree to allow U.S. states and localities to participate in the EU’s Emissions Trading System if they meet “reasonable standards” regarding the quality of emissions allowances. And together with the EU, the U.S. would agree to launch a major new effort to fund clean energy in the developing world.

The primer would have the U.S. and the EU reiterate their support for the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and recognize the conclusions of that panel’s Third Assessment Report. Finally, the primer would have the U.S. agree to participate in discussions under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to help design an international agreement for continued control of greenhouse gases when the Kyoto protocol expires in 2012.

Among those policy experts signing the document are former national security advisers Samuel R. Burger and Anthony Lake; British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd; and Joachim Bitterlich, former adviser to German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.