U.S. SIGNS A PACT TO REDUCE GASES TIED TO WARMING
By JOHN H. CUSHMAN Jr.
Published: November 13, 1998
WASHINGTON, Nov. 12— The Administration today signed the international agreement to fight global warming, affirming a crucial American role in a long environmental crusade but not raising any hope of Senate approval in the near future.
The signing, which the Administration has long promised, reinforces its commitment to the treaty, which calls for sharp cuts in emissions of industrial gases from burning coal, oil, wood and natural gas. But the accord is not legally binding unless the Senate approves it.
Vice President Al Gore said, ''Our signing of the protocol underscores our determination to achieve a truly global solution to this global challenge.'' But he emphasized that much more bargaining lies ahead.
Treaty opponents in the United States immediately raised an outcry, but the step was widely applauded in Buenos Aires, where 150 nations are debating how the treaty can be put into effect.
Stuart E. Eizenstat, the chief American delegate to the talks there, announced this morning that the United States would sign the pact, which was negotiated last year in Kyoto, Japan. A. Peter Burleigh, the acting American representative to the United Nations, signed it in New York this afternoon.
But the Administration, as expected, will not yet submit the Kyoto Protocol for approval by the Senate, where it faces substantial opposition from critics who say the costs to industry would damage the economy.
The White House has said all along that the United States would sign it before the deadline next March, but would not ratify it unless key American provisos are accepted. Given the pace of the continuing talks, that probably means not before the elections in 2000.
The protocol strengthens a global treaty negotiated in Rio de Janiero in 1992 and ratified during the Bush Administration. Many scientists say rising concentrations of greenhouse gases, warming the earth's surface like an invisible quilt, are threatening grave environmental harm.
Without the participation of the United States, the leading source of waste industrial gases, the agreement would collapse. The United States was the 60th nation to sign.
''Kyoto is a landmark achievement but it is a work in progress and key issues remain outstanding,'' said Mr. Eizenstat, who is the Undersecretary of State for Economic Affairs.
In a telephone interview, he said the signing was intended to strengthen Washington's negotiating hand. But critics in Congress, echoing the views of their constituents in industries like coal and automobiles, said it would reduce American leverage.
Mr. Eizenstat called the announcement a high point in negotiations that otherwise have focused on small advances toward putting the complex agreement into force.
''I am not gilding the lily when I say there was near euphoria among delegates here,'' he said. ''They just felt this was a real sign of U.S. leadership. I think there was really a doubt that we were really going to pursue this, with all the opposition in the Senate and in other quarters. The feeling was that perhaps the domestic opposition was so stiff that we were going to back off.''
To fulfill the accord, the United States would have to cut its emissions by about 7 percent from the 1990 level over the next 10 to 15 years. Emissions have been steadily increasing since 1990, making that target very ambitious.
The conditions that the United States is demanding are meant to hold down the costs of compliance and to increase the chance that the Senate will eventually approve.
One condition is a system of trading ''emissions credits,'' effectively allowing the United States to reduce its own emissions less by paying other countries to reduce theirs more. Another is persuading developing nations to take a larger role in cutting emissions, encouraging them with financial assistance from developed nations, which would get emissions credits in exchange.
Both ideas face strong resistance from some countries that say the first steps must be taken by industrial nations like the United States, which emits about a quarter of all greenhouse gases.
Opponents of the treaty are marshalling opposition in Congress, arguing that the targets cannot be met without damaging the economy.
Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat and a leading treaty proponent, said in Buenos Aires that signing the protocol ''gives us the credibility to be at the table'' in the continuing talks. ''That means we can not only make sure it happens, but that it happens in the way that we prefer,'' he said.
But a Democrat who opposes the protocol, Representative John D. Dingell of Michigan, said, ''The timing of this signing only encourages countries who refuse to be part of any effort to limit emissions.''
On Wednesday Argentina pledged to curb its emissions, and today Kazakhstan also did so, but populous countries like China and India, whose emissions are growing fast, resist formal limits.
''The President has chosen a risky path both domestically and internationally,'' said Connie Holms, the chairwoman of the Global Climate Coalition, which represents major industry groups opposed to the treaty. ''Clinton has sent the U.S. careening down an endless highway which appears on no maps, has no speed limits, no police patrols, and no exit or entrance ramps.''
Senator Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska, who sponsored a Senate resolution last year that opposed signing the treaty unless certain conditions were met, said the signing ''blatantly contradicts the will of the United States Senate'' and dared President Clinton to submit it to the Senate, where a two-thirds vote is required for approval.
''If this treaty is good enough to sign, it's good enough to be submitted to the Senate for an open, honest debate,'' he said.
Environmental groups praised the signing, but some complained that the United States is not doing enough yet to reduce greenhouse gas.
''Without a more vigorous commitment to domestic action, U.S. demands for more action by developing countries are like a chain-smoking parent telling his children that smoking is bad for them,'' said John Adams, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council. He urged the Administration to take unilateral steps to cut emissions of carbon dioxide from automobiles, power plants and other sources.
Photo: A. Peter Burleigh, a United States representative at the United Nations, signed the international accord yesterday on reducing gas emissions, which many scientists believe cause global warming. (Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times)(pg. A14)