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Greenpeace Hails Major Political Victory for the Climate Bonn, Germany – 27 July 2001 - At the conclusion of the Bonn climate talks, Greenpeace hailed the Ministerial agreement as an historic landmark in the battle to protect the earth’s climate. The formal adoption of the political agreement by representatives of 180 nations means that the Kyoto Protocol is ready for ratification. ‘We’ve won a major tactical victory here, and the big losers are the oil, coal, gas and nuclear industries, and George W. Bush,” said Bill Hare, Climate Policy Director for Greenpeace International. “All parties to the agreement should now proceed immediately with ratification. There are no longer any excuses for delay of the implementation of measures needed to protect the climate.” As late as Thursday evening, Australia was leading a charge which included Japan, the United States, Russia and some OPEC countries to try and pick at the legal details of the agreement, which will be finalised at the Seventh Conference of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol in Marrakesh, Morocco at the end of October. However, the essential elements of the political agreement are intact, and the remaining ‘Umbrella Group’ countries can only nibble around the edges of the agreement with lawyers. “We would like to congratulate New Zealand, Norway and Iceland for finally breaking away from the ‘umbrella group’ and joining the rest of the world in helping move this issue forward rather than holding it back,” said Bill Hare. “And we are particularly appreciative of the fine work done here by Mr. Salamat of Iran, Chair of the Group of 77 developing countries and China . The United States and OPEC continue to gnaw away at their old plots, but the world has moved on without them.” It is perfectly clear that the Bush Adminstration will be increasingly destructive to the Kyoto Protocol in an effort to undermine this historic Ministerial agreement, which has left the US completely isolated. Any U.S. attempts to obstruct Kyoto Protocol progress will be met with with wide spread public and Congressional condemnation. The recent spate of announcements of new US legislation in response to the Bonn agreement and public opinion polls indicate that George W. Bush is out of step with his own country as well. While the Bonn talks were delayed from May to July to accommodate US promises of an alternative, it is now clear that no such alternative is forthcoming, at least until after Marrakesh. In the meantime, all we can expect from the US is attempts to undermine the ongoing Kyoto process, in an attempt to regain some international credibility For further information:
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