Talks on Global Warming Pact Could Put U.S. in the Hot Seat : Environment: American officials are standing alone on some key issues as the first round of international negotiations begin.

In the Washington suburb of Chantilly, Va., negotiators from as many as 130 countries will gather Monday to confront the daunting task of writing an international pact to combat global warming, with the United States trying to avoid being cast as the skunk at its own garden party.

Opening a series of talks aimed at producing a global climate change convention to be signed in June, 1992, the United States finds itself uncomfortably isolated over the key issue of reducing carbon dioxide pollution from the burning of fossil fuels, at odds with European governments over how to proceed in the historic negotiations, and without its long-promised national energy strategy.

The debate has raged through two years of preparation for the talks, and Monday’s first round will open with the possibility of an early gridlock over the procedures to be followed during the next 18 months.

Over the last year, some 22 European governments have adopted ambitious deadlines for reducing or stabilizing carbon dioxide emissions. But the Bush Administration has held back, insisting that more research is needed, particularly on the economic impact of adopting stringent controls.

The United States is the world’s largest carbon dioxide producer, and Administration officials have cited estimates that it could cost more than $3 trillion to implement reductions of the magnitude proposed by some European countries.

During a study of the greenhouse effect by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United States argued that commitments to stabilizing or reducing carbon dioxide emissions should be postponed until the formal negotiating process. Yet now that the process is at hand, critics charge the Bush Administration with continuing to drag its feet.

It was apparently in response to that criticism that President Bush issued an invitation for the opening round of negotiations to take place in the United States. But as the delegates began arriving, White House sources said there were no plans for the President to put in an appearance during the 10-day session, and the Administration has shown no evidence that it is willing to budge on the carbon dioxide issue.

“The Administration understands that the United States’ position is not well received in the world community,” said a U.S. official who declined to be identified, “and its objective is to recast its position and image so as to be taken seriously.”

That effort is being made in part through an Administration white paper entitled “America’s Climate Change Strategy--An Action Agenda,” prepared for the opening session.

In it, the Administration argues that its comprehensive climate change strategy, if implemented, “will result in United States greenhouse gas emissions in the year 2000 being equal to or below 1987 levels.”

It also maintains that the United States “has essentially stabilized its emissions of carbon dioxide over the last 15 years despite a growth in economic output of about 50%.”

The language of the paper indicates a change in tone, if not substance, in the Administration’s approach to the negotiations. Previously, officials had suggested that the objectives set by the Europeans were political goals that might prove unattainable.

Although a substantial part of the meeting will be taken up with establishing the machinery to continue the negotiations in Geneva and in Nairobi, Kenya, later this year, officials hope to finish the broad outlines of a framework agreement or convention.

However, there appears to be a real chance of an immediate standoff.

Throughout the preparations for the negotiations, the United States has favored completing a climate convention before turning to the more important task of adopting the protocols to put teeth into it.

European countries that already have made commitments to reduce their own carbon dioxide outputs generally favor parallel negotiations--developing the implementing protocols at the same time the convention itself is being negotiated. That way, an agreement could become effective immediately upon signing next year.

To avoid encountering gridlock at the outset, negotiators are expected to press ahead with non-controversial elements that will make up about 80% of the eventual agreement, leaving contested material aside until the later sessions this year and next.

Representatives of environmental groups said last week that they want to see more from the opening round of negotiations than an outline for a climate convention.

“These negotiations will be every bit as important to the future of the planet as the arms control talks that have been at the center of diplomacy for the last three decades,” said Daniel Lashof, a senior scientist for the National Resources Defense Council. “A changing climate will pose diplomatic, economic and even military problems to rival those of yesterday’s Cold War or today’s Persian Gulf crisis. Yet the United States, the world’s largest producer of greenhouse gases, has no domestic or foreign policy for combatting global warming.”

Some members of the Bush Administration, notably Environmental Protection Agency Administrator William K. Reilly, have favored a strategy akin to the approach of the Europeans. But White House insiders such as Chief of Staff John H. Sununu have resisted efforts to make commitments to carbon dioxide reduction targets.

“Part of the resistance has been related to the key constituencies of the Republican Party and to the philosophical tenets of the conservative wing of the party,” said William A. Nitze, former deputy assistant secretary of state and now president of the Alliance to Save Energy.

But Nitze suggested that continuing pressure from environmentalists and European governments and mounting evidence that carbon dioxide accelerates the Earth’s natural greenhouse effect will make it politically palatable for the Administration to move toward a compromise position.

While divided over major policy issues, the United States and European governments are understood to have agreed to support Jean Ripert, a senior French diplomat, to chair the continuing negotiations.

The United States’ delegation will be chaired by Curtis Bohlen, the assistant secretary of state for oceans and international environmental and scientific affairs, but the negotiating team will be headed by Robert A. Reinstein, his deputy.