CABLECODE# 08PARIS957
2008-05-19
President Bush’s trip to Paris
Key point: Bush Administration convinced of its leadership on climate change via investment in technology
Dispatch: “Ninety percent of the French public considers climate change as one of the gravest issues facing mankind and many still cannot understand why the U.S. failed to accept the Kyoto Protocol. When Sarkozy was elected President, he challenged the U.S. to assume a leadership role. Over the past year, the French have begun to appreciate our active engagement on this issue… his does not mean that the French share all U.S. positions in the Major Economies Meeting (on Energy Security and Climate Change). For example, they thought our medium-term greenhouse gas emissions reduction target (capping emissions at 2025 levels) much too modest…. [must] sensitize Sarkozy and the GOF further to the seriousness and breadth of U.S. efforts.”