(3 Apr 2001)
Washington DC, 3 April
1. Pan of European Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstroem walking with Swedish Environment Minister Kjell Larsson to news conference
2. Cutaway of reporters
3. SOUNDBITE: (English) Kjell Larsson, Swedish Environment Minister
"We are prepared, we are very much prepared to go on alone-well, not alone, but to go one without the United States and we still have the objective of ratifying the protocol next year. We cannot allow one country to kill a process which is meant to confront the major future problem that we have. We have that responsibility. It's sad if the Americans are not in that process, because that will make the task more difficult and the costs higher. But we have to go along and we hope to have the U-S within the protocol as soon as possible."
4. Close up of reporter
5. SOUNDBITE: (English) Margot Wallstroem, European Environment Commissioner
"Its an issue that has to be on top of the political agenda in all countries in the world for a very long time to come and if now the United States withdraws from the only framework there is for these international talks, then it makes things more complicated."
6. Close-up of Larsson and Wallstroem
7. Mid shot press gathered
Cleveland - Cleveland
8. Zoom in to shot of pollution coming from industrial plant
Washington DC - 3 April 2001
9. Pan of E-U delegation arriving at U-S's Environmental Protection Agency (E-P-A) offices
10. Wide shot of news conference
11. SOUNDBITE: (English) Kjell Larsson, Swedish Environment Minister
"We are disappointed, we didn't anticipate any opening, I wouldn't say we had a basis for doing that. But we are disappointed what Mrs Whitman said about the Kyoto process. We are satisfied that they are prepared to go on discussing with us and look forward to have the result of their policy review."
12. Mid shot of news conference
STORYLINE:
European leaders are keeping up their efforts to salvage the 1997 Kyoto agreement to reduce global warming, despite failed attempts to persuade the American leadership not to reconsider abandoning the policy.
U-S President, George W Bush, has announced the Kyoto agreement's mandatory cuts to burning fossil fuels, and it's short timetable, are no longer acceptable to the U-S.
Ambassadors from the European Union (E-U) scheduled meetings on Tuesday with Environmental Protection Agency (E-P-A) SAdministrator Christie Whitman, in an effort to reverse the decision, but to no avail.
The delegation, led by Kjell Larsson, Sweden's environment minister, and Margot Wallstroem, the E-U's environment commissioner, had hoped to persuade the E-P-A that the Kyoto treaty was the best mechanism for attacking global warming.
But, after a meeting that lasted more than a hour, it told reporters the E-P-A had given the E-U no indication that it would change its position.
President Bush reversed a campaign pledge to treat carbon dioxide from power plants as a pollutant last month, despite warnings from the E-P-A that the issue was a matter of "international credibility."
He said the reductions of C-O-2 and other greenhouse gases called for in the 1997 treaty were too expensive to implement.
The administration said it instead will seek an alternative that would include poorer, underdeveloped countries now exempt from treaty commitments.
The Kyoto protocol calls for countries to cut heat-trapping emissions by an average 5-point-2 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.
Addressing reporters at a news conference in the afternoon, Larsson said the E-U was prepared to take the lead in the issue.
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