The Kyoto agreement calls for developed nations to collectively reduce their emissions to 5.2 percent less than 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012. Europe must cut by 8 percent, the United States by 7 and Japan by 6. The target date is 2012. The European Union, which has been strongly critical of earlier U.S. suggestions, had no immediate reaction to the American proposal. But environmental groups quickly urged delegates at the conference to dismiss it.
Carbon dioxide is a key greenhouse gas and is mostly produced by power plants, factories and cars.
The U.S. delegation, led by Under Secretary of State Frank E. Loy, proposed that every country should get full credit for the first 20 tons of carbon dioxide absorbed by its forests and credit for only one third of any greenhouse gases soaked up beyond that amount. U.S. delegates said that plan would satisfy about 20 percent or 25 percent of the total American obligation. But the new U.S. proposal drew disapproving comments. This proportion that they've proposed today is a form of cheating. The United States also wants limitless ability to buy so-called carbon credits from countries that will easily meet their own targets and have some pollution allowance to spare.