Copout in Kyoto - United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Kyoto, Japan

Sierra, March-April, 1998 by B.J. Bergman

The Sierra Club's contingent in Kyoto arrived bearing gifts -- bright yellow T-shirts that implored, With the Earth in the Balance, Don't COP out." In the parlance of treaty negotiators, COP refers to the conference of the parties," the broad climate-change framework hammered out in Brazil in 1992. The literary allusion was to that same year's best-seller by then-Senator Al Gore, in which he called for "bold and unequivocal action" to combat the threat of global warming.

Sadly, Vice President Gore heeded neither the Club nor his own book. He did make a dramatic, 1-day appearance at the 11 -day December gathering, under pressure from environmentalists. But when the United States and 37 other developed nations finally agreed on binding targets and timetables to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, the steps were anything but bold and unequivocal.

"The good news is that the world focused its attention on global warming and decided to act," says Club President Adam Werbach, who attended the conference with Dan Becker, the Club's global warming program director, and Kristin Hyde, its communications director. "The bad news is that the pollution levels set by this treaty are risky for us, dangerous for our children, and potentially catastrophic for our grandchildren."

The treaty calls for more rigorous cuts than the White House wanted heading into the talks, but falls far short of the steps urged by other industrialized nations -- and by President Clinton himself, who as recently as October cited a "solemn obligation" to prevent global warming. "I think we all have to agree that the potential for serious climate disruption is real," he said. "It would clearly be a grave mistake to bury our heads in the sand and pretend the issue will go away."

Faced with strong opposition in Congress and a $13 million lobbying campaign by polluting industries, the White House grudgingly agreed to on-paper reductions of carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases to 7 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. But the formula for scaling back emissions is enormously complicated, and Clinton aides admit that the real reductions required will be closer to 3 percent -- a number that environmentalists, citing loopholes in the treaty, regard as overstated as well.

"This agreement has almost as many loopholes as targets," complains Becker. "It's the result of a tug-of-war between the Europeans, who wanted honest reductions, and the Americans, who wanted dishonest reductions.' Besides the lengthy timetable for cuts, he and others object to the treaty's heavy reliance on voluntary measures and especially its emissions-trading scheme, which allows U.S. industries to discharge higher levels of greenhouse gases in exchange for investing in pollution controls in other countries. "The thinking is, 'Let Vladimir do it, so we don't have to do it here," says Becker, who adds that this so-called joint implementation plan is "unverifiable" and "unpoliceable."

Club activists contend that the United States -- which produces nearly a quarter of the world's carbon dioxide, the primary culprit in global warming -- is the place to begin reversing the trend toward climate instability. Most of all, we want to get cuts in domestic emissions now," says Becker. "There's a lot that could be done by this administration -- and even more if Congress helped."

To jump-start that process, the Sierra Club has launched a public-education campaign to rally support for quick action on climate change. Starting last fall -- months before the Kyoto summit -- the Club produced a series of attention-grabbing public-service announcements to air on TV stations around the country. A new Web site offers everything from news accounts to a recent "name that gas guzzler" contest, which invited visitors to help Ford come up with a fitting moniker for its latest [CO.sub.2]-spewing sport utility vehicle.

Two long-standing objectives remain at the top of the Club's climate-change agenda: increasing the fuel efficiency of automobiles and light trucks, and encouraging energy conservation and a nationwide shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources.

For now, at least, Senate leaders are threatening to block ratification of the Kyoto agreement unless it's weakened still further. But with or without a treaty, Club leaders are intent on persuading the American people of the need for bold and unequivocal action. Only then, they believe, will Clinton and Congress come along.

Says Becker: "We're looking to the future."