Netherlands - The European Union rejected a U.S. proposal offered as a more flexible way to help countries meet their greenhouse gas reduction targets, saying Tuesday that it would have allowed the Americans to increase their emissions. Canada and Japan have backed the U.S. proposal that countries should be allowed to earn credits against their emissions quotas for the carbon dioxide absorbed by farmlands and forests. The idea was widely denounced by environmentalists as ''cheating'' after it was outlined late Monday at an international climate conference in The Hague. The conference is supposed to lay down the rules and procedures for implementing emissions cuts agreed upon in the Kyoto Protocol three years ago in Japan.
Carbon dioxide is a key greenhouse gas.
It is mostly produced by power plants, factories and cars, but it is absorbed by trees. When more is emitted than can be used by trees, too much remains in the atmosphere, heating the earth and gradually forcing the climate to change. It is the net amount that counts, and from a scientific standpoint, it does not matter whether the cuts come from lowering emissions or stepping up absorption, experts say. Debate at The Hague has focused on what extent countries should be able to rely on alternatives to actual emissions reductions to meet their targets. The United States favors unlimited use of so-called ''flexible mechanisms,'' such as earning credits for farmland and forests and the international trade in pollution credits.