Bush Sees Role on Environment as Political Plus

Shrugging off two weeks of incessant criticism from government representatives and environmental activists gathered at the Earth Summit, President Bush declared Saturday that he is prepared to campaign for reelection as the “environmental President.”

On the day after his controversial nine-minute appearance before the 178-nation gathering, he called his environmental record one that “I will be proud to take to the American people.”

“I do have to be concerned about the American worker, about taxes, about a lot of things like that . . . “ Bush said at a news conference, “but I think we have an outstanding environmental record.”

The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development was marked by the United States’ refusal to sign one important treaty and its successful weakening of another, but Bush again insisted that his Administration has built a proud environmental record.

As proof, he cited the 1990 Clean Air Act, his national energy strategy, a tree planting program “second to none,” limitations on offshore oil drilling, action against the destruction of the atmosphere’s ozone layer and additions to parks, forests and wildlife refuges.

“I think along these lines we have done very, very well,” he said. “And I think that’s a case I can be proud to take to the American people.”

The President’s three-day trip south was marred by demonstrations that disrupted an appearance in Panama and by harsh criticism at the Rio summit.

He suggested at a Saturday morning news conference, hours before he left for the United States, that in both instances the opposition represented extremes.

“I have said that American environment policy is not going to be dominated by the extremes,” he said in response to a question, “because I believe that the title of economic development, as well as environmental protection, is in order. I think both things count.

“But maybe it’s the same as the Panama question. What dominates is the protest, not the fact that there was a great warm reception along the way” before the disruption.

On Friday, a similar defense of his Administration’s environmental record before world leaders and conference delegates was received largely without enthusiasm. Only British Prime Minister John Major, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney took occasion in their speeches to offer a word of praise for the United States.

Members of the U.S. delegation to the U.N. conference, carefully instructed from Washington, were conspicuously uncomfortable with their role of frustrating efforts by other nations to take more aggressive action on a number of fronts.

Bush returned to the summit site only briefly Saturday afternoon, joining about 115 other heads of state for a luncheon and a photograph commemorating the occasion.

As the other leaders moved on to an hourlong round-table session before the summit’s afternoon plenary meeting, Bush headed for the airport.

The meeting ends with a final session at 10 a.m. PDT today.

The last stubborn differences were reportedly resolved Saturday, but it is expected to be weeks before a final text of an 800-page environmental action plan, called Agenda 21, is completed.

On Saturday afternoon, Japan announced that it will make as much as $7.7 billion in environmental aid available to developing countries over the next five years.

It was not clear, however, how much of that will be “new money,” since Japan’s overall foreign aid budget will not be set until late this year.

In the last three years, the country has contributed $3.1 billion in environmental assistance.

Japan stands second only to the United States in total foreign assistance. The contribution announced Saturday could put it first.

Like the United States, however, Japan would have to almost triple its aid to developing countries to reach the United Nations’ goal, reaffirmed by the summit here, to have developed countries contribute 0.7% of their gross national product to official development assistance.

Although critics of the Bush Administration have in recent days repeatedly cited Japan for being farsighted in recognizing economic opportunity in environmental protection, the delegation from Tokyo showed some confusion in stepping into its role as a summit leader.

Not until Friday was it finally decided that domestic political problems would force Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa to cancel his trip to Rio to personally announce his government’s increased environmental aid.

Japan’s contribution was announced by spokesmen after Miyazawa was denied the right to deliver a video address. U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said he denied the request because he feared it would set “a bad precedent.”