Now how do we save the Earth?

By Robin Oakley, CNN.com European political editor

So is it the end of the planet?

Environmentalists have castigated world leaders who came away from The Hague without agreeing measures to curb carbon dioxide emissions and prevent climate change.

If they could not manage global co-operation when the world is in danger, they argue, what hope is there for Earth? The bruised participants are now all in the position of the one-time loser in an American election who called together his followers and said: "We all know there is no such thing as an unmitigated disaster -- so get out there and mitigate."

But rescuing a deal will not be easy. The next environmental meeting on the same scale is not scheduled until May 2001 in Bonn.

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By that time there could be a Republican President in America who is sceptical about arguments over greenhouse gases and global warming, and who is even less likely to make concessions than the Clinton administration proved in the person of Under Secretary for Global Affairs Frank Loy.

Although there is talk of European leaders agreeing their own deal on December 17 in an effort to shame the U.S., even that will be difficult now.

An Anglo-French war of words between UK Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and the French Environment Minister Dominque Voynet, a leading figure in her country's Green Party, has soured the political atmosphere.

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Hopes for a breakthrough at The Hague depended on settling arguments between the U.S., responsible with four percent of the world's population for 25 percent of its carbon dioxide emissions, and the Europeans.

U.S. hopes were pinned on a deal involving so-called "carbon sinks"', allowing the U.S. to set some of its reduced emissions target against the forests which absorb carbon dioxide.

Prescott, an architect of the 1997 original target deal in Kyoto, Japan, believed he had brokered a deal between the U.S. and Europe, getting America to drop its demand to count in the total forests planted overseas.

Prematurely his delegation announced a deal had been done.

"Gutted", as he put it, at the subsequent breakdown, he blamed Voynet, saying: "She got cold feet. She was exhausted and tired and could not understand the detail."

Voynet, who was backed by Denmark , Sweden, Germany and others in rejecting the deal, said on Monday : "Britain had conceded too much to America. It was not acceptable."

She called Prescott's remarks "pathetic and mediocre" and accused him of being a macho male chauvinist. In truth the deal was scuppered by a deeper psychology and by politics on a less than global scale.

Prescott failed to appreciate the anger of some European politicians at what they saw as the deep intransigence of the U.S. He was piqued at the breakdown after his delegation had prematurely announced a deal.

He also did not appreciate the suspicion of other European politicians that the UK, seen as seeking to maintain its "special relationship" with the US, was too ready to compromise.

For her part Voynet, with future French elections in mind, needed to refurbish her Green credentials after domestic criticism on other environmental issues.

The French, resentful of American domination of the global economy and ever-sensitive about cultural takeovers, are traditionally America's sharpest critics in Europe.

Having seen one concession from the U.S., they wanted to push for more. On the wider scale, Europeans fail to appreciate the reluctance of U.S. politicians in either major party to negotiate the traditional American way of life, with its cheap petrol and gas-guzzling cars.

America , for all its booming economy, still has plenty of wide open spaces. Environmental concerns simply do not have the priority they have assumed elsewhere.

Until they do it is difficult to see the world's politicians succeeding in reaching the agreement which eluded them at The Hague.

War of words over green accord
November 27, 2000
No deal on global warming as climate talks collapse
November 25, 2000
Debate rages over fossil fuels
November 20, 2000
Going green a risky business
November 24, 2000

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