U.S. Eases Position on Global Warming

CHANTILLY, Va. —  The Bush Administration gingerly softened its skeptical stance on the threat of global warming Monday, as negotiators from around the world launched a United Nations quest for a worldwide agreement with potentially profound environmental and economic impact.

Calling for a combined strategy of research and action, Environmental Quality Council Chairman Michael DeLand told representatives from 89 nations that by the turn of the century the United States will stabilize its emissions of so-called “greenhouse gases” at 1987 levels.

And in a letter to negotiators, President Bush offered his personal assurance that the United States is “prepared to work openly, diligently and respectfully” toward an agreement that can be signed by the target date of June, 1992.

From the outset of international deliberations, the United States has stressed the need for more research before making commitments to massively reduce pollutants, which scientists fear could make the earth 5 to 10 degrees warmer in the next century than it was before the Industrial Revolution.

Although Bush and Deland offered the Administration’s cooperation in the negotiations, some nations remained skeptical. The United States entered the negotiations at odds with other industrial countries, which already have adopted goals for reducing carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas produced by burning coal, oil and gasoline.

St. Lucia’s ambassador to the United Nations, speaking for an alliance of island nations, said that there is no reason to be heartened by what Bush and DeLand had to say.

“In the scientific debate, we are squarely on the side of those who say climate change has already begun. We believe that in the coming year, with gentle persuasion, the United States will come to accept what the rest of the world is saying.”

U.S. officials hope to see the 10-day meeting, the first of four rounds of negotiations set for 1991, end with an outline for an international climate change convention. But in spite of the cooperative tone on opening day, the Bush Administration is unwilling to go along with countries anxious to write protocols giving the convention authority to implement changes.

To avert a possible deadlock over that issue, environmentalists and some European delegates want to see working groups on carbon dioxide policy and forestry established later this week.

Sources said that the U.S. delegation would oppose both but would agree to setting up other working groups to address subjects such as technology transfer, research and funding mechanisms for Third World assistance. These, said a delegation adviser, would permit useful preliminary work on the protocols to proceed without focusing so sharply on the touchy issue of carbon dioxide controls.

The United States backed its call for a comprehensive program of research and action with a colorful brochure outlining a climate change strategy that Bush “promised will have broad-ranging benefits--from curbing air pollution, to conserving energy, to restoring forest lands,” besides combatting global warming.

Critics took the emphasis on the comprehensive approach and attention to other greenhouse gases already covered by international agreements as an attempt to divert attention from the carbon dioxide debate.