Posted on June, 12 2001

Gland, Switzerland - Results of public opinion surveys released today by WWF, the conservation organization, show overwhelmingly that Europeans want their governments to take the lead in the fight against global warming by bringing into force the Kyoto climate treaty, even if the United States does not take part now. This is an important signal to European heads of government who will hold a meeting on climate change with US President Bush in Gothenburg on 14 June.

The results from the four European countries in the survey - Belgium, Italy, Spain and the UK - consistently show that over 80 per cent of respondents want their governments to go ahead with the Kyoto Protocol whether the US is involved or not. Support for this rises to nearly 89 per cent of those surveyed in Spain. Europeans also strongly believe that leading industrialized countries like Japan and Canada should break ranks with the US and support the EU in its stance against global warming. Support for this ranges between 46.7 per cent of respondents in Italy up to 91.3 per cent of respondents in Spain. However, those surveyed tend to be even more strongly in favour of their own governments doing more to reduce their country's own global warming pollution. Support for stronger domestic action ranges from 77.6 per cent of those surveyed in Belgium to 95.7 per cent of those in Spain.

"These are powerful findings which Europe's political leaders must not ignore when they sit down with President Bush next week," said Andrew Kerr, Communications Manager of WWF's Climate Change Campaign. "European leaders have a phenomenal level of public support for rallying the international community to finalise the Kyoto climate treaty, with or without the US. They would be making an error of historic proportions if they backed away from the treaty now in a naﶥ attempt to accommodate the US. It would be like rewarding President Bush both for opposing efforts against global warming and for his energy plan, which will increase carbon dioxide emissions in the US substantially."

Since taking office, President Bush has broken a pledge to regulate global warming pollution from US power plants and declared his outright opposition to the Kyoto climate treaty, that has been the subject of years of international negotiations. Last month, President Bush approved an energy plan that promotes the use of polluting coal and oil that would mean US emissions of carbon dioxide - the main global warming gas - would be 50 per cent higher in 2020 than they were in 1990. Although the US is the world's largest emitter of CO2, the Kyoto treaty without the US would still be a strong basis for action, including nations accounting for around 45 per cent of the world's carbon pollution.

"People are obviously well-informed and extremely concerned about global warming. Like WWF, they want to see less talk from politicians and more action to cut the pollution causing this problem, through much tougher national and international efforts. EU heads of governments should make a formal decision to ratify the Kyoto treaty, irrespective of the United States," said Andrew Kerr.

For further information contact:

Andrew Kerr, Tel: +31 6 5161 9462, Email: rrek@compuserve.com

Robert Kihara, Tel: +41 22 364 9553, Email: rkihara@wwfint.org