U.S. global warming stance prompts pie in the face

Splat: Loy suffers the indignity of a pie attack

November 22, 2000
Web posted at: 3:46 PM EST (2046 GMT)

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- The top U.S. diplomat at a U.N. climate conference was hit in the face with a pie on Wednesday, as activists and delegates alike expressed frustration over unproductive talks meant to curb fossil fuel emissions.

A woman thrust a custard pie in the face of Frank Loy, under secretary for global affairs at the State Department, as a fellow environmental campaigner angrily declared that the United States was doing nothing meaningful to fight global warming.

"This is all a farce," shouted the latter protester as the first was hustled away by security guards.

Loy, wiping pie off his face, said talks were at a serious stage and Washington wanted a deal that recognized "reality."

"On the eve of Thanksgiving, pumpkin pie would have been a more traditional choice, but what I really want is a strong agreement to fight global warming," Loy said.

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The EU, backed by most poor countries, says every developed nation must make substantial cuts in emissions at home and not rely entirely on deals that would, in effect, allow rich countries to pay other nations to make their cuts for them.

The United States wants to share its targets for cutting emissions with other countries as a way of meeting its obligations under the 1997 Kyoto global warming pact.

Earlier, more than 20 British activists disrupted a meeting of a group of government ministers discussing an agreement aimed at reducing emissions of heat-trapping gases warming the planet.

A British protest group Corporate Watch said the conference was failing to protect people affected by climate change and by the operations of oil multinationals. Those living in Latin America, the Niger Delta, Bangladesh and Pacific Islands are among the most vulnerable, the group said.

"The plight of the people isn't even on the agenda. Instead we have a carbon casino masquerading as a solution to a global crisis," a Carbon Watch statement said

"We need drastic cuts in emissions. But what we see is a huggle of gangsters, plotting the most profitable scams to dodge even the woefully inadequate Kyoto targets."

U.S. Sen. John Kerry, right, criticized the U.S. position to count carbon sinks, such as forests, against pollution targets

About 250 students, including 150 from the United States, were stopped by Dutch police Wednesday from marching through The Hague to the U.S. Embassy to protest against accepting nuclear power as a clean alternative to oil and coal.

Mounted police, ambulances and paddy wagons were on standby, in what Greenpeace demonstrator Ben Pearson described as "preparations for full-scale war."

The EU opposes another U.S. plan to allow developed nations to count carbon dioxide soaked up by forests, so-called carbon "sinks," against emissions targets set in Kyoto.

U.S. Sen. John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat who has been involved in environmental legislation, said he also had problems with the U.S. position.

Instead of cutting its emissions by 7 percent as agreed at Kyoto, he said, the sinks proposal would allow the United States to pump at least 1 percent more greenhouse gases than it did in 1990.

"Some sinks clearly must be counted, but they should be in line with the spirit of the Kyoto agreement," he said. "Any retrenchment diminishes our credibility on other proposals" and raises "understandable suspicion that they are mere loopholes."

With only days left to agree on issues that defied resolution for three years, conference chairman Jan Pronk said the chances of success were a toss-up. About 35 "crunch issues" required high-level political decision, Pronk said.

French Environment Minister Dominique Voynet said the United States was looking increasingly isolated in its push for countries to claim their own forests' natural absorption of carbon dioxide as credits against emissions targets.

A panel of international scientists predicts that, left unchecked, greenhouse gases could make the Earth's temperature rise up 10.8 degrees F (6 degrees C) by 2100, with devastating consequences for the environment and human life.

The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.

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United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
  • The Convention and the Kyoto Protocol
International Institute for Sustainable Development
European Union
World Meteorological Organization

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