More than 120 nations meet in Geneva to endorse the IPCC report and to call for accelerated talks on a legally binding treaty on cutting greenhouse gases. Four more rounds of negotiations are held in Geneva and Bonn, Germany, over the following year. Clinton, in a speech, acknowledges the seriousness of the problem but refuses to accept a European Union proposal for aggressive cuts in heat-trapping gases. The EU calls for reducing emissions to 15 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2010, with trade sanctions and other penalties against countries that fail to comply. Japan proposes a more cautious plan that would roll back emissions to 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.
European governments are critical of the proposal, but the United States voices cautious support.
A group of 77 developing countries offers an aggressive proposal that seeks even deeper cuts from industrialized nations. Clinton outlines the U.S. position on global warming, calling for relatively modest but legally binding cuts in pollution as well as incentives and tax breaks to encourage companies to reduce emissions early. The administration seeks to cap pollution at 1990 levels by 2012, with further, unspecified cuts to follow. Clinton insists that developing countries play a significant role in fighting global warming, a position opposed by many European and Third World governments. Diplomats met in Kyoto and signed the world's first international accord setting mandatory limits on greenhouse gases.