Berlin - European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has sharply criticized plans outlined by US President George W Bush to cut greenhouse gas emissions, saying the United States needs to set more ambitious goals. "The US has special responsibility as a large emitter of pollutants," Barroso told Friday's Financial Times Deutschland (FTD) in remarks translated from the German.
"It is clear that we need a more ambitious position from the US," he added.
Barroso's strong criticism follows a cautious welcome to the Bush initiative from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, host to next week's G8 meeting in the northern resort of Heiligendamm.
Speaking Thursday, Merkel said Bush's speech represented significant "movement" on the previous uncompromising US position on setting greenhouse gas emission targets and an "important step on the road to Heiligendamm."
Barroso, who will be present at the G8 meeting, came out strongly in favour of binding emission targets,
"The US is relying strongly on market mechanisms in the battle against climate change, and rightly so," he said. "But market mechanisms only work when one has binding targets."
Bush has rejected global trade in carbon dioxide emission certificates.
Barroso told the FTD he did not expect agreement on concrete climate protection plans in Heiligendamm, even though Merkel has put the issue at the top of the agenda.
But he expressed the hope the US would see the need to bring the United Nations into the process. The G8 summit should provide a launching point for the UN climate protection meeting in Bali in December, he said.
Barroso said Bush's initiative was being superceded by events within the US, where "public opinion on the issue is developing at breathtaking pace."
Noting that Bush leaves office in January 2009, the EU head expressed the hope for a "real breakthrough to the post-Kyoto era in 2009."
The 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which calls for limited reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from the industrialized world, runs out in 2012.
The US has not ratified the treaty and demands that rapidly developing countries like China and India be brought into the process.
Under Merkel's leadership, the EU has set ambitious targets for cutting carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 20 per cent from 1990 levels by 2020. A similar goal has been set for increasing the use of renewable energy resources.
In its leading article, the FTD said the German chancellor had overestimated her powers on the world stage following her success on the issue at an EU summit in Brussels in March.
The influential newspaper predicted the G8 summit, which takes place from Wednesday to Friday, would mark Merkel's "greatest foreign policy defeat" to date at the hands of Bush.
