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 WASHINGTON (AP) - European Union and U.S. leaders are hailing what they say is a major step toward bridging their sharp differences on global warming. Academics and critics of President Bush's policies, however, question whether he really gave any ground.
At issue is a little-noticed sentence deep in a joint statement signed during an EU-White House summit Monday. It said senior officials would meet at a climate forum in Europe this year to discuss "market mechanisms, including but not limited to emissions trading."
The EU's top official in Washington, John Bruton, said this signaled a new U.S. willingness to discuss the EU's cap-and-trade emissions trading system, in which mandatory limits are placed on carbon dioxide levels. The Bush administration has strongly opposed U.S. participation in such a system.
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