Bush's Kyoto alternative.

In a surprise move on July 27, President Bush announced a new six-nation pact on global warming. In a statement, the president said: "The United States has joined with Australia, China, India, Japan, and South Korea to create a new Asia-Pacific partnership on clean development, energy security, and climate change." Details about the new partnership are sketchy, but according to a White House fact sheet, the parties to the agreement pledge on a voluntary basis to develop and use technologies that increase energy security while decreasing emissions of so-called greenhouse gases. "This new results-oriented partnership will allow our nations to develop and accelerate deployment of cleaner, more efficient energy technologies to meet national pollution reduction, energy security, and climate change concerns in ways that reduce poverty and promote economic development," the president said in his statement.

Aside from an admission on the part of the Bush administration that it thinks global warming is a real concern, the move serves as the perfect foil for the disturbingly draconian Kyoto Accord. Kyoto partisans argue that the six-nation deal may be a way for the Bush administration to undermine Kyoto. "The pact sounds more like a dirty coal deal," said a statement from Greenpeace. "However, whatever this deal includes in its final form, it cannot and should not be used ... to escape domestic emissions reductions." Criticism like this gave the Bush administration the opportunity to argue that it was actually seeking to work in concert with the Kyoto Accord. "We view this as a complement, not an alternative," to Kyoto, said Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick.