Summit Stresses Ecological Threat : Concerted Action Urged as Priority Is Given to Environment for First Time

Leaders of the world’s seven largest industrial democracies ended their annual economic summit here Sunday with a call for concerted action in a new area of concern--the growing threat to the global environment.

After 2 1/2 days of meetings, the seven--President Bush and the leaders of West Germany, Japan, Britain, France, Italy and Canada--issued a formal communique that for the first time made the environment a top political priority internationally.

They also reaffirmed their current policies on a spate of global economic issues, ranging from the reduction of trade imbalances in the major industrial countries to the proper value for the dollar.

French President Francois Mitterrand, host of both the summit and a companion celebration of the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution, said at a closing press conference that the session produced “an excellent climate for the exchange of views.”

Bush, echoing those sentiments, called the summit session “a clear success” and added, “I am satisfied that the summit has accomplished its goals.”

The final communique warned of “an urgent need to safeguard the environment for future generations” and asserted that protecting it “calls for a determined and concerted international response” and “the early adoption, worldwide,” of sustainable policies to deal with it.

Environmental groups, which sent unofficial representatives to keep tabs on the summit action, hailed the fact that the ecological issue was at last put on the agenda but expressed disappointment that the communique offered few specific commitments.

Rafe Pomerance, a senior associate of the World Resources Institute, a Washington-based research group, said the seven leaders “failed to propose the decisive actions necessary to confront the deteriorating (global) trends.”

But Bush, at his end-of-summit press conference, dismissed such criticism as missing the main point--that the summit for the first time brought environmental issues to the fore. “They didn’t think I took decisive actions when I sent the clean air bill up to Congress,” he complained.

In their communique, the summit leaders:

-- Called for a speedup in preparations for a previously planned international convention designed to hammer out guidelines for dealing with the threat of global warming caused by the so-called greenhouse effect.

-- Agreed for the first time on the need to limit emissions of carbon dioxide, which cause the greenhouse effect, and called for stepped-up monitoring and exchange of information worldwide.

-- Reiterated their support for a 1987 international agreement to help stem the depletion of the atmosphere’s ozone layer by eliminating the use of chlorofluorocarbons by the end of the century and vowed to expand their efforts to include substances not covered by the 1987 accord.

-- Pledged to increase their financial support for the U.N. Environment Program, the only major international agency that deals in this field.

West German Proposals

At the same time, the group sidestepped more sweeping action on the environment, including proposals by West Germany to call a major new conference on the world climatic issue and to establish a powerful new international organization to regulate pollution.

The economic section of the communique was even less ambitious than the portion on the environment.

Pronouncing themselves satisfied with the state of the world economy, the seven leaders essentially reaffirmed their current policies on issues such as trade, the dollar and developing country debt. They strongly endorsed the Third World debt-reduction strategy proposed last March 10 by U.S. Treasury Secretary Nicholas F. Brady.

They also pointedly urged Mexico and its creditor banks to complete an accord on refinancing of that country’s foreign debt. They warned that governments would not be providing additional funds if the negotiations failed.

Top officials of the United States and several other countries had hoped that the Mexican debt talks, which continued through the weekend in New York, could have been concluded in time for the summit. The Bush Administration wants to use the Mexican case as the showpiece of the Brady debt plan.

The industrial nations essentially sidestepped potential disputes over how to deal with the resurgence of inflation in some countries, such as Britain, West Germany and Japan. They had little new to say about the continuing U.S. trade deficit and corresponding surpluses in West Germany and Japan.

Speaking to reporters later, Brady reiterated the Administration’s contention--apparently supported by the other governments--that with the U.S. economy continuing to move along nicely, there was no point in fixing something “if it’s not broke.”

Fears Recession

However, Bush conceded at his press conference that he sometimes worries that the U.S. economy may be “stalling” and could be heading toward a recession. Some analysts have interpreted recent economic figures as raising that possibility, although most still believe that growth will only slow moderately.

Sunday’s communique pledged two other actions that the seven leaders said they thought would prove important.

It set up an international task force to probe ways to crack down on money laundering, which the seven countries regard as a major element in financing drug trafficking around the world. The group, to be known as the Financial Action Task Force, is scheduled to issue recommendations by next April.

And it called for more vigorous international cooperation to rein in insider trading in stock markets, such as the kind that brought down Wall Street kingpin Ivan F. Boesky. U.S. officials said the leaders were worried that the credibility of international financial markets would suffer if offenders were not brought into line.

The effort to spotlight environmental issues was substantial by any measure. A full 10 pages of the 22-page communique dealt with environmental issues. By contrast, at last year’s summit, such issues barely received a paragraph.

The move stemmed from increased political pressure by environmentalists in virtually all of the summit countries--particularly West Germany, where the Greens party has done well in recent elections--and by new interest from Bush, who has pledged to become “the environmental President.”

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14 YEARS OF SUMMITS: THE RECORD Leaders of the United States, Britain, France, West Germany, Italy and Japan have met annually since 1975, with Canada joining in 1976, for economic summit conferences. Here is a summary of what transpired at previous conferences: Nov. 15-17, 1975, Chateau de Rambouillet, France: Agreed to stimulate economies; accepted flexible exchange rates; gave strong support and momentum to trade talks in Tokyo, which three years later lowered tariff barriers.

June 27-28, 1976, San Juan, Puerto Rico: Called for balanced growth, stressing danger of a “new wave” of inflation.

May 7-8, 1977, London: Agreed on broad economic policies, those with stronger economies (United States, West Germany, Japan) emphasizing growth, those with higher inflation stressing stabilization; approved increased reliance on nuclear energy and gave further impetus to trade-liberalization talks.

July 16-17, 1978, Bonn: Agreed on coordinated economic policies with respect to growth, deficits and inflation; pledged conservation and other steps on energy.

June 28-29, 1979, Tokyo: Reached agreement on steps to limit oil imports, to create a register of international oil transactions and to maintain or raise domestic oil prices to the world level.

June 21-23, 1980, Venice, Italy: Called for complete withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, made reduction of inflation an “immediate top priority” and agreed to conserve oil.

July 20-22, 1981, Ottawa: Debated high U.S. interest rates; supported global negotiations on development, paving way for summit of 21 industrial and developing nations in Cancun, Mexico.

June 5-6, 1982, Versailles, France: Agreed to intensify economic and monetary cooperation; launched study of exchange-rate intervention.

May 28-30, 1983, Williamsburg, Va.: Support for U.S. missile deployment in Europe won by President Reagan.

June 7-9, 1984, London: Talks dominated by effect of high U.S. interest rates on world economic recovery; members pledged to help debt-ridden nations.

May 2-4, 1985, Bonn: Focused on common economic priorities of reducing inflation, lowering interest rates and enforcing greater budget discipline; French President Francois Mitterrand balked at proposal for new trade-liberalization talks.

May 4-6, 1986, Tokyo: Adopted monetary reform plan to strengthen global cooperation; agreed to more aid for Third World debtor nations that adopt free market policies; supported greater funding for World Bank, and agreed to work harder against state-sponsored terrorism.

June 8-10, 1987, Venice: Made modest progress toward reducing trade imbalances; leaders endorsed stronger “early warning system” for coordinating future international economic policy in hopes of preventing a global economic downturn.

June 19-22, 1988, Toronto: Agreed to reduce global agricultural subsidies; endorsed U.S.-Canadian free-trade agreement and Europe’s bid to create a single market by 1992.

SOURCE: Times researcher Melanie Pickett