Bush outlines climate change strategy

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US President George W. Bush speaks at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, DC. Bush said Thursday he would urge major industrialized nations at a summit next week to join a new global framework for fighting climate change after the Kyoto Protocol lapses.(Xinhua/AFP Photo)

US President George W. Bush has unveiled a long-term strategy on climate change a week before the G8 summit.

He's calling on world leaders to set up investment in research and development in his technology-based plan. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who will host the summit, has hailed the US initiative as an important step.

Bush says he wants the 15 major nations that emit the most climate-warming greenhouse gases to meet in the US this fall and agree on a goal for greenhouse-gas emissions.

Bush said, "By the end of next year, America and other nations will set a long-term global goal for reducing greenhouse gases. To help develop this goal, the United States will convene a series of meetings of nations that produce most greenhouse gas emissions."

Bush said technological solutions must be found to meet energy needs and environmental concerns. He also promised to cut trade barriers to sharing environmental technology.

The US strategy calls for a new framework on greenhouse gas emissions when the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012, though the US never signed that agreement.

But in negotiations before the G8 summit, Washington rejected setting targets to reduce greenhouse gases, an idea championed by other participants.

Germany saw the US move as a positive change from its previous position. The Bush administration has opposed a proposal by Germany to curb greenhouse gas emissions to 50 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2020.