Bush shifts approach on climate

washington -- President Bush, who took office skeptical about global warming, said Friday that the nations emitting the most greenhouse gases -- a group that includes the United States -- must reduce their pollution levels.

But he also insisted on voluntary goals for such efforts, which he said could be met largely through new technology that would create “an age of clean energy.”

He set a two-year deadline for nations in a U.S.-led conference to reach a consensus on how to cut emissions, a schedule that punts the decision to his successor.

In addition, he proposed creating an international fund, with contributions from governments, to help make clean-energy technology more available.

Critics chastised Bush for not seeking immediate and specific steps to increase energy efficiency, expand use of renewable fuels and move toward mandatory emissions restrictions similar to those set to expire in 2012 under the Kyoto Protocol -- an international pact the United States never joined.

The president’s speech represented a concerted effort by his administration to seize control of the debate over global warming. At the same time, he sought to fend off calls for dramatic action that would mandate specific reductions in heat-trapping gases such as those given off when fossil fuels are burned.

Bush spoke on the second and final day of a 17-nation conference at the State Department that brought together officials from the world’s major economies and energy consumers.

Under pressure to demonstrate action on global warming last spring, the White House announced plans for the conference shortly before the Group of Eight nations -- Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Russia and the U.S. -- met in their annual summit in June. One of the top agenda items at that meeting was climate change.

James Connaughton, who as chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality oversaw this week’s meeting, said it met his goal of putting “issues on the table.”

But Mogens Peter Carl, the European Union’s director general for the environment, told reporters after the sessions that there needed to be talk about specific targets for emissions reductions, rather than broad goals.

Humberto Rosa, Portugal’s deputy environmental minister, applauded the Bush administration for signaling its readiness to engage on global warming. But he, too, emphasized the need for concrete, binding caps on emissions.

The global warming debate has proved troublesome for Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, both of whom spent several years in the oil business. Bush rarely speaks of it at such length.

Reflecting a shift from his initial skepticism, the president acknowledged the widely reported and respected conclusion of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that, in his words, “global temperatures are rising and that this is caused largely by human activities.”

He began his remarks by saying that “energy security and climate change are two of the greatest challenges of our time,” and that “the United States takes these challenges seriously.”

By setting a goal for reduced emissions, Bush said, “we acknowledge there is a problem. And by setting this goal, we commit ourselves to doing something about it.”

With the demand for energy forecast by many experts to rise more than 50% by 2030, Bush challenged the conference participants to find a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while meeting needs for economic growth.

Bush called for “a new international approach on greenhouse gas emissions” -- one that would commit the world’s largest producers of the gases to set goals for reducing them, and to do so by next summer at a meeting of heads of state. The program would include a system to measure progress toward the goals, and would be followed by a “global consensus” at the United Nations by 2009 on emissions reductions.

“Each nation must decide for itself the right mix of tools and technologies to achieve results that are measurable and environmentally effective,” the president said.

Nowhere in the 20-minute speech did Bush suggest that the targets would be specific limits, with penalties if they are not met. Nor did he use the word “voluntary,” which would have drawn attention to his opposition to the sort of mandates favored by many environmentalists.

Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists and a veteran observer of international global warming negotiations, said the conference had “achieved nothing.”

He also said: “As long as the White House continues to oppose mandatory pollution limits, it is part of the problem, not the solution.”

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who chairs the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, said that without mandating specific reductions in pollution, Bush’s speech amounted to “little more than empty words.”

Along with heavily industrialized nations, the conference’s participants included China, India, Indonesia and Brazil -- rapidly developing countries whose expansion has placed them among the major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions.

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james.gerstenzang@latimes.com

Times staff writers Jordy Yager and Theo Milonopoulos contributed to this report.