U.S., Germany agree on vague climate measures
President Bush is on a tour of Europe, seeking ways to repair relationships with traditional allies that don’t involve changing any U.S. position on any subject — and that includes global warming. His stop in Germany yesterday to talk with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was a positive, if strained, affair, generating a declaration of cooperation on the subject of climate change. The document outlines broad areas of collaboration, including modernizing energy sources, assisting developing nations with clean technology, and that hoary old Bush administration chestnut, more research. The declaration included no specific details or targets or, you know, substance, but it did give Bush and Schroeder something nice to talk about. Europeans had hoped that Bush’s visit to the continent would mark a new willingness to act on the climate issue; time will tell whether they’ll be mollified by his bold proposal to keep doing what he’s been doing.
