The European Commission has attacked US proposals

Date: 23/10/1997

to stabilise greenhouse gas emissions at 1990 levels by the year 2012, accusing Washington of backtracking on existing commitments made at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio. “This is simply not good enough and it is not going to solve the problems of climate change that were behind Rio,” said Commission spokesman Peter Jorgensen. The US is responsible for more than one-fifth of emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases said to cause global warming.