In the waning months of his term in office President George W. Bush attempted to make a mark on Global environmental politics this week.

In the Rose Garden facing the White House south lawn President Bush announced last Wednesday that the United States should stop the growth of greenhouse gases by 2025. He also challenged other major international polluters like India and China to adopt similar policies.

As he has done in the past President Bush put his faith in private enterprise to solve the US contribution to greenhouse gas production.

“The wrong way is to raise taxes, duplicate mandates, or demand sudden and drastic emissions cuts that have no chance of being realized and every chance of hurting our economy,” he said. “The right way is to set realistic goals for reducing emissions consistent with advances in technology.”

Opponents to Mr. Bush contend that his announcement is a political move to stymie the proposed legislation being considered by the Democratic controlled Senate, which will soon present legislation that would adopt the “cap and trade” approach which would limit companies on emissions and permit them to trade for pollution credits. - wikipedia.org/wiki/Cap_and_trade

President Bush strongly opposes the Senate approach to greenhouse gas emissions control.

“Bad legislation would impose tremendous costs on our economy and on American families without accomplishing important climate change goals we share,” said Mr. Bush.

International reaction has not been kind to the President.

The German Minister of Environment called the Bush speech “Neanderthal…Losership not Leadership.”

“President Bush recognized the need for mandatory federal legislation to tackle climate change but what he proposed … will not contribute to the effective tackling of climate change,” European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas told Reuters.

In Paris, at US inspired environmental talks, the 16 nations involved had mixed feelings about President Bush’s announcements.

“It’s good to have something on the table,” Yvo de Boer, head of the UN Climate Change Secretariat, said of Bush’s plan.

Marthinus van Schalkwyk, the South African Environmental Affairs Minister, had the future in mind when he spoke to reporters. “We are looking forward to whoever succeeds the present (US) administration; because we believe we can probably do better.”

All of the hopeful candidates competing for the November Presidential election favor the cap and trade approach for greenhouse emissions.

Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama want to reduce carbon dioxide to the levels we saw in 1990 and further reduce those levels, through cap and trade, to 80 percent below the 1990 levels by 2050.

John McCain also favors cap and trade agreements and has endorsed legislation in 2007 to cut carbon emissions by 10 percent by 2020.

”(Bush’s plan) fell far short of the action needed by developed countries to save the planet from potentially catastrophic global warming,” said a spokesman for the European Union executive.

“This does not match with the level of ambition needed on the part of developed countries, considering their responsibilities in the challenge we face,” the spokesman said in a statement to Reuters.

Shortly after taking office in 2001 President Bush refused to sign the Kyoto protocol and since then the European Union and the United States have been at odds on how to deal with fighting climate change.

The EU has pledged to reduce its greenhouse gases by 20 percent by 2020 compared to 1990 levels

“We welcome the fact that President Bush recognized the need for federal legislation of a legally binding nature to address greenhouse gas emissions in the United States and for the first time made a reference to cap and trade,” the EU spokesman said.

“The (EU) Commission hopes that the US will reflect further on the level of ambition this represents, and notably in only stopping the growth of US emissions by 2025,” he said.