US Hopes to Avoid Repeat of Kyoto Protocol

President Barack Obama's administration will be guided by a mix of "science and pragmatism" as it helps craft a global deal on climate change, the top U.S. climate official said Friday. Todd Stern said that would help the administration avoid a repeat of what happened with the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, when U.S. officials negotiated a deal in Japan that failed to win domestic support. The U.S. refusal to join the program to reduce emissions drew sharp international rebuke, and fueled views that George W. Bush's administration was opposed to global cooperation and environmental preservation. On the eve of talks marking the Obama team's debut in the U.N. climate change negotiations, Stern said the U.S. is committed to getting a deal that will help prevent the devastating effects of global warming and also be politically viable. "We do not have any interest in the United States in having a repeat of the Kyoto experience, where we signed an agreement that is dead on arrival when we brought it back home," Stern told reporters at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin...CNS News