By: CECÍLIA PIRES
UNITED STATES Ambassador to Portugal, Alfred Hoffman Jr., is optimistic about the upcoming G8 Summit, which started today (June 6) in Germany, and is discussing issues such as climate change and economic, social and development aid.
The eight most industrialised countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States) in the world will be discussing a new proposal from Germany to overcome the constraints of the Kyoto Protocol, during the Summit meetings, scheduled to last until Friday, June 8, in Heiligendamm, Germany’s oldest seaside resort.
Alfred Hoffman Jr. was the main speaker at a seminar which took place yesterday (June 5) at the Algarve University to mark International Environment Day. His speech focused exclusively on the climate change issue, following instructions from the White House, which asked all the diplomatic representatives in the world to focus any public presentations on that subject. This way, the world’s public opinion would be better prepared for the United States President’s upcoming proposals for the climate change issue in the G8 Summit.
Financial friends
Hoffman remembered the old cooperation alliance between the United States and the Marshal Plan 15 countries, which were also the founders of the European Union. He remembered the billions of dollars his country has already spent in development aid programmes in European countries, including Portugal.
The Ambassador regretted the fact that European countries have the “wrong image” about the efforts being made by the United States to reduce the impact of industrial pollution around the globe. “Since I came to Portugal 18 months ago, I noticed there is mixed and wrong information about my country’s efforts to reduce global warming,” he said.
US is concerned
According to Alfred Hoffman, “in 2006, while our (US) economy grew 3.2 per cent, our carbon dioxide emissions actually declined 1.2 per cent. But most of the European countries were unable to achieve these declining results”. Since 2002, the United States’ efforts to cut carbon dioxide emissions have produced better results than those efforts made by Europe.
To prove this, Mr Hoffman said: “From 2001 to 2004, the entire US economy grew by 11.7 per cent. In that same period, we had an increase of around 10 million inhabitants, but our global carbon dioxide emissions only grew by 1.2 per cent.” So, “our economy is going substantially faster than our increase in global emissions”, he concluded.
He went on to compare the US figures with Europe figures: “During the same period of time, economic growth in EU countries was of six per cent and global emissions in this same period increased by 2.5 per cent. Two times the rate of the US global emissions.” Based on these numbers, Alfred Hoffman is convinced that the US has been more successful in reducing global emissions than Europe. “I’m not saying that we are better than Europe, but I am pointing out that there are some facts that you should all be aware of before accusing the US of not wanting to signing the Kyoto Protocol or that the US does not want to cooperate to reduce global warming,” he said.
The United States’ criteria for signing the Kyoto Protocol remain the same. “We could not sign that treaty because India and China were not included and because a reduction of 35 per cent in our carbon dioxide emissions was impossible to achieve in our economy,” he said.
What the United States is proposing now is that “the 15 or 16 countries, which are responsible for 80 per cent of the global warming, agree on working together to create a cooperation network to research new technologies and industries”. According to Hoffman, “if we manage to produce Ethanol from other basic and more efficient material than corn or sugar cane, then that will be the solution for the future”.
Land use and energy efficiency
Sustainable land use and energy efficiency are some of the most important short term action measures the United States wants to see all countries committed to. The US fears that the new, huge business opportunities that come from this move to bio-energetic solutions may put food production at risk in many countries. “This is something we cannot risk to happen,” the Ambassador said.
On the energy efficiency proposal, the United States says it is “available to discuss the reduction, or even the elimination, of the import taxes on environmental friendly technologies and products, if all countries from the polluters ‘network’ also agree to do the same”.
Global action for a global problem
One thing is very clear about this new US position. The United States does not intend to sign the Kyoto Protocol unless China and India are committed at a similar level. “Whatever comes from a possible agreement, China and India must be included,” the US Ambassador said.
A strong investment in the educational systems to promote a more environmentally friendly attitude is one of the ways to change things in that part of the world. “When there is a problem that needs to be solved, we must first see if people really wish for it to be solved,” he said.
On this specific educational point, the United States Ambassador said: “Al Gore did a great service to the world” when he featured in An Inconvenient Truth, a documentary directed by Davis Guggenheim about climate change. “The climate change issue is, in fact, a global problem that requires global action and that film did have a global impact”, he said.
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