White House Agrees to Negotiations on Global Warming

The White House, in an apparent softening of its position on a major environmental problem, has dropped its opposition to a formal treaty-negotiating process on global warming, it was learned Thursday.

Until now, the United States had been alone among major Western economic powers in opposing such an initiative.

The change of position was outlined in a cable dispatched Thursday to U.S. delegates at an environmental conference in Geneva sponsored by the United Nations.

Saying it was essential for the United States to exercise a leadership role, the cable said, “We should seek to develop full international consensus on necessary steps to prepare for a formal treaty-negotiating process.”

It said the United States would be willing to host a workshop on global warming later this year.

The cable, a copy of which was obtained by the Associated Press, was sent by White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu, who earlier had rejected efforts to put the United States in the lead in establishing an international convention on global warming.

The convention idea had been supported by Secretary of State James A. Baker III and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator William K. Reilly. But Sununu had argued that a convention was premature and that more analysis was needed of economic and other effects of the potentially dramatic actions needed against global warming, officials said.

Temperatures Could Rise

Scientists believe that global temperatures could rise 4 degrees to 9 degrees Fahrenheit by the middle of the next century because increasing levels of carbon dioxide and other man-made gases in the atmosphere will trap and retain heat from the sun in a process similar to what happens in a greenhouse.

Such a warming trend could melt polar ice caps and cause sea levels to rise, cause severe droughts and storms and severely disrupt the Earth’s biological systems.

Scientists at a Senate hearing on Monday testified that the problem might be worse than their own computer programs can predict.

The White House had ordered one of the scientists, James E. Hansen, director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, to change his testimony to avoid the impression “that there is unanimity within the government on this issue.”

In his cable, Sununu said, “We consider the reported emerging agreement on an advanced preparatory program to address global climate response issues comprehensively to be extremely positive.

“To further this process, please make every effort to obtain agreement on a global warming workshop this fall, hosted by the United States,” Sununu said.

He said such a meeting “should be designed to identify the scientific, legal, technical and economic issues critical to further progress on beginning negotiations on an international convention on global climate change.”