17 June 2001

Secretary Powell Says Kyoto Process Is Not Dead

Secretary of State Colin Powell says the Bush administration considers the Kyoto Protocol on global warming to be a "dead letter," but the Kyoto process itself is not dead.

Powell, interviewed June 17 on the Fox News Sunday television program, said President Bush recognizes that there is a global warming problem, and the United States will be playing a leading role in developing an alternative to the "flawed" Kyoto agreement.

Following is an excerpt from the interview transcript, containing Powell's comments on the global warming issue:

U.S. Department of State
Washington, D.C.

Interview on Fox News Sunday

Secretary Colin L. Powell Interview by Tony Snow

June 17, 2001

Q: Is the Kyoto Protocol a dead letter?

Secretary Powell: The Kyoto Protocol, as far as the United States is concerned, is a dead letter. The Kyoto process is not a dead letter. As the President said, he understands that there is a global warming problem, although the science is not complete in its defining exactly the extent and magnitude and timing of that problem, but it is a problem.

And he also said he wants to be part of a process. He just believes that the process produced a bad product in the 1997 protocol. And he has explained the reasoning for that: it did not include undeveloped nations; the requirements placed on the United States were far too severe for us to be able to accommodate within our economic system; and the Europeans, frankly, did not have the same burdens placed on them that we had placed on us.

So the process produced a product that was flawed, and now we need to use the process to produce a product that will be successful, will be more comprehensive, make maximum use of developing technologies, and be equitable for all the nations of the world and deal with the specific problem.

Q: You talk about a process. European heads of state were openly hostile with the President. Here's what the Prime Minister of Japan said: "I find it truly deplorable that the US Government said the pact was fatally flawed." What kind of process can you have?

Secretary Powell: Well, he may find it deplorable, but nevertheless it was flawed. And the process will continue. There will be conferences in Bonn in about six weeks' time, and the President has told his colleagues in Europe and elsewhere -- and I'll be speaking to the Foreign Minister of Japan tomorrow, Mrs. Tanaka, and describe to her and to others that we are moving forward to see what else might be done with technology improvements, with ways of keeping emissions from going up into the sky in the first place.

And this is just the beginning of a long process of studying and examination on the part of the United States. So we are going to play a leadership role in showing the world that there is a better product that can come out of this process than was the Kyoto Protocol.

end excerpt