Every now and then people tell me that what I call anti-Americanism is just objective criticism. Really? Let us have a look at the G-8 summit which is going to take place next week in Germany. Now, I could think of a lot of important issues to be dealt with, but the most hypothetical danger of all seems to have been put on top of the agenda: Climate Change.
Germany is proposing a so-called “two-degree” target, whereby global temperatures would be allowed to increase no more than 2 degrees Celsius before being brought back down. The US rejects this proposal. But it is not America alone.
Still, whenever I switch on the radio or the TV these days I get to hear that the G-8 summit is going to be a failure because the US is opposing the 2-degrees deal. No mention of all the other countries objecting. China, India, Japan, Canada, … Is that “objective” criticism? To put the blame on America alone?
James Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, is right: “The two-degree temperature target is one that the European Union has come to adopt but is not one that any of the other countries is prepared to adopt.”
Who is going to tell the Germans? The American ambassador? Just kidding.
UPDATE June 1, 2007: It is the Boss himself! Yesterday President Bush announced that the US seeks emission goals for global warming
Fact Sheet: A New International Climate Change Framework
and today he is on German TV:
„Bush will verbindliche Klimaschutzziele“, ZDF heute, 01.06.2007
Reactions in Germany and Europe were quite foreseeable:
This morning, Sigmar Gabriel, German Environment Minister, called the proposal a “Trojan horse” and Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, asked for a “more ambitious” US position.
Still, I have the impression that during the day the mood has been changing. Let us hope for more …
And let us hope that Angela Merkel is going to prove this headline, allegeing she is not impressed by the US proposal, wrong:
“Kanzlerin Merkel ist nicht sehr beeindruckt”, 1. Juni 2007, welt.de