Obama To Enact Major Environmental Policy Shift

[babylonsister]

US Wants Mandatory Cuts In Greenhouse Gases Across The Globe In Major Environmental Policy Shift: AP

JOHN HEILPRIN | April 29, 2009 05:17 PM EST | AP


UNITED NATIONS — The Obama administration, in a major environmental policy shift, is preparing to ask 195 nations that ratified the U.N. ozone treaty to enact mandatory reductions in hydrofluorocarbons, according to U.S. officials and documents obtained by The Associated Press.

The change _ the first U.S.-proposed mandatory global cut in greenhouse gases _ would transform the ozone treaty into a strong tool for fighting global warming.

"Now it's going to be a climate treaty, with no ozone-depleting materials, if this goes forward," an Environmental Protection Agency technical expert on the ozone treaty said Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity because a decision was not final.

The expert said the 21-year-old ozone treaty known as Montreal Protocol created virtually the entire market for hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, so including them in the treaty would take care of a problem of its own making.

It's uncertain how that would work in conjunction with the Kyoto Protocol, the world's climate treaty, which now regulates HFCs and was rejected by the Bush administration. Negotiations to replace Kyoto, which expires in 2012, are to be concluded in December in Denmark.


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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/29/us-wants-mandatory-cuts-i_n_193112.html