US Climate Goals “Unachievable”

Happy Environment Day, story Number 2.

No surprises here really, by the US will tell a July meeting of the G8 that it cannot meet big cuts in greenhouse gases by 2020, its chief climate negotiator Harlan Watson said.

“It’s frankly not do-able for us,” he said, referring to a goal for rich countries to curb greenhouse gases by 25-40 percent by 2020 compared to 1990 levels.
A draft summit declaration, showed Washington is blocking efforts to get the summit to agree targets for cutting carbon emissions, insisting that responsibility be shared by big emerging economies.
The European Union says it will cut emissions by 30 percent if other rich countries do and supports a goal of 25-40 percent for all industrialised nations.
But the candidates running to replace U.S. President George W. Bush, and who all support action to stem climate change, were only talking about returning to 1990 or 2000 U.S. emissions levels by 2020, Watson said.
“And I think most analysis of whether we could do that (say) it would be a heavy lift for the United States given our current infrastructure.”
Ironically that infrastructure is now being changed to incorporate oil sands (see blog above), making it even more unlikely that the US will meet its targets.