Britain Urges Limits On Emissions Minister Says 15 Percent Cut Wouldn’t Hurt World Economies

Britain warned Monday that too many countries were failing to set targets to limit gas emissions that lead to global warming, clinging instead to short-term national interests.

Foreign Office Minister Derek Fatchett said his country will take the lead in pushing for “significant reductions” in heat-trapping “greenhouse” gases at a climate summit in Kyoto, Japan, in December.

“Kyoto is a real deadline,” he told a seminar. “Delay will mean more serious disruption of the world’s climate. When we delay, we risk ordinary people’s livelihoods - even their lives.”

The climate summit is aimed at negotiating a treaty to address what many scientists believe is the slow warming of Earth’s atmosphere by increased industrialization and the emission of such gases as carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane.

The European Union has proposed that all developed nations reduce gas emissions by 15 percent from 1990 levels by 2012. Japan has proposed a 5 percent cut, which the EU has called insufficient.

President Clinton, at a White House conference on global warming last week, said the United States must take a leadership role and be prepared to commit to “realistic and binding goals” to reduce heat-trapping gases. But he gave no hint on how far he was willing to go.

“I think what the White House decides will be strongly influenced by” industrialized countries as well as Brazil, India and China, said Michael Grubb, head of the institute’s energy and environment program.

“The U.S. is holding its cards very close to its chest,” he said. “It’s war in Washington between the various factions.”

Arguing for a 15 percent cut in emissions, Fatchett told the seminar, sponsored by the Foreign Office and the Royal Institute of International Affairs, that such reductions wouldn’t put economies at risk.

But he warned that “progress will continue to be tortuous” as long as countries see national interests only in the narrowest scope.