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<DIV>U.S. Rebuffs Germany on Greenhouse Gas Cuts </NYT_HEADLINE>
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<FORM name=cccform
action=https://s100.copyright.com/CommonApp/LoadingApplication.jsp
target=_Icon>By <A title="More Articles by Helene Cooper"
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/helene_cooper/index.html?inline=nyt-per">HELENE
COOPER</A> and <A title="More Articles by Andrew C. Revkin"
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/andrew_c_revkin/index.html?inline=nyt-per">ANDREW
C. REVKIN</A></FORM></DIV></NYT_BYLINE>
<DIV class=timestamp>Published: May 26, 2007</DIV>
<DIV id=articleBody><NYT_TEXT>
<P>WASHINGTON, May 25 — The United States has rejected Germany’s proposal for
deep long-term cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, setting the stage for a battle
that will pit President Bush against his European allies at next month’s meeting
of the world’s richest countries. </P>
<P>In unusually harsh language, Bush administration negotiators took issue with
the German draft of the communiqué for the meeting of the <A
title="More articles about Group of Eight"
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/g/group_of_eight/index.html?inline=nyt-org">Group
of 8</A> industrialized nations, complaining that the proposal “crosses multiple
red lines in terms of what we simply cannot agree to.”</P>
<P>“We have tried to tread lightly, but there is only so far we can go given our
fundamental opposition to the German position,” the American response said.</P>
<P>Germany, backed by Britain and now Japan, has proposed cutting global
greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2050. Chancellor Angela Merkel of
Germany, who will be the host of the meeting in the Baltic Sea resort of
Heiligendamm next month, has been pushing hard to get the Group of 8 to take
significant action on <A title="Recent and archival news about global warming."
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/globalwarming/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier">climate
change</A>.</P>
<P>It had been a foregone conclusion that the Western European members of the
Group of 8 — Germany, Italy, France and Britain — would back the reductions. But
on Thursday, Prime Minister <A title="More articles about Shinzo Abe."
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/a/shinzo_abe/index.html?inline=nyt-per">Shinzo
Abe</A> of Japan threw his lot in with the Europeans, and proposed cutting
carbon emissions as part of a new framework to replace the Kyoto Protocol, whose
mandatory caps on gases end in 2012. </P>
<P>“The Kyoto Protocol was the first, concrete step for the human race to tackle
global warming, but we must admit that it has limitations,” Mr. Abe said at a
conference in Tokyo. He specifically called on the United States and China, the
biggest producers of carbon emissions, to lead the fight against global warming.
</P>
<P>The United States has refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol because of
concerns about damage to the American economy. Bush administration officials
have also balked because China and India are not part of it. </P>
<P>The push back by the Bush administration over the German proposal has left
many European diplomats furious. “The United States, on this issue, is virtually
isolated,” one European diplomat said on condition of anonymity under diplomatic
rules, and then added, “with the exception of other big polluters.”</P>
<P>Both Ms. Merkel and Prime Minister <A title="More articles about Tony Blair."
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/tony_blair/index.html?inline=nyt-per">Tony
Blair</A> of Britain have, in private talks with President Bush, pushed for the
United States to agree to the European proposal. </P>
<P>Kristen A. Hellmer, a spokeswoman for the White House on environmental
issues, said: “All the G-8 countries are committed to pursuing an agreement. We
just come at it from different perspectives.”</P>
<P>A clearly disappointed Ms. Merkel, speaking to Germany’s lower house of
Parliament on Thursday, sought to lower expectations that Mr. Bush would agree
to the more ambitious agenda sought by Europe and Japan. “I can say quite openly
that, today, I don’t know whether we will succeed in that at Heiligendamm,” she
said. </P>
<P>The United States, with less than 5 percent of the world’s population,
produces between a fifth and a quarter of the world’s emissions, according to
government data. </P>
<P>Emissions in Europe and the United States have been slowing of late, with a
slight drop in the United States in 2006. But much more growth is forecast by
various agencies on both sides of the Atlantic and particularly in
Asia.</P><NYT_AUTHOR_ID>
<DIV id=authorId>
<P>Helene Cooper reported from Washington, and Andrew C. Revkin from New
York.</P></DIV></DIV></DIV>
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