04 April 2001

EPA Administrator Whitman Statement on Climate Change

Christie Whitman, administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), said in an April 3 statement that the United States will work with its allies to develop technologies, market-based incentives and other innovative approaches to deal with global climate change.

Whitman issued the statement after meeting with a delegation from the European Union that came to Washington in the hope of getting the Bush administration to reconsider its decision not to support the 1997 global warming treaty negotiated in Kyoto, Japan. The treaty, which calls on industrialized nations to reduce their emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, was signed by the United States but not ratified.

President Bush has said that the treaty would adversely affect the U.S. economy while exempting developing countries, including India and China, from taking on emissions reduction targets.

"The Kyoto Protocol is unfair to the United States and to other industrialized nations because it exempts 80 percent of the world from compliance," Whitman said. She added that the administration is undertaking a Cabinet-level review of U.S. climate change policy that will examine domestic and international options for addressing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Last November, international negotiators failed to reach agreement on final rules for implementing the Kyoto Protocol. The U.N.-sponsored talks are scheduled to resume this July in Bonn.

Following is the text of Whitman's statement:

United States Environmental Protection Agency
Washington, D.C.

April 3, 2001

Statement By EPA Administrator Christie Whitman on Meeting with members of ohe European Community

Today I emphasized to members of the European Community that I continue to be as optimistic as the President that, working constructively with our friends and allies through international processes, we can develop technologies, market-based incentives, and other innovative approaches to global climate change.

The Kyoto Protocol is unfair to the United States and to other industrialized nations because it exempts 80 percent of the world from compliance. That is why the United States Senate voted 95-0 to warn against sending the Senate a treaty that could damage the economy.

The Administration is undertaking a Cabinet-level review of U.S. climate change policy and is considering what policies we should pursue domestically and internationally to address concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Global climate change is a serious issue that this administration is committed to addressing by working closely with our friends and allies.

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