GW Bush between the lines: No way Britain, we have a wars to wage.

Britain: U.S. Must Help Avert Climate Catastrophe

By Jeremy Lovell

EXETER, England (Reuters) - Britain, arguing that climate change is now unstoppable, urged the United States on Tuesday to sign up to life-saving cuts in greenhouse gas emissions as environmentalists warned of approaching Armageddon.

Opening a three-day scientific meeting to assess the threat of global warming, environment minister Margaret Beckett said it was vital Washington become more involved.

"A significant impact is already inevitable -- we need to act now to limit the scale of warming in the future and avoid even worse effects," she said. "We would like America to engage more fully with these discussions about where we might go."

America is one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (CO2), but rejects most scientific opinion that mankind is largely to blame for climate warming and has refused to join the Kyoto Protocol (news - web sites) on curbing emissions.

Kyoto, which comes into force on Feb. 16, aims to cut CO2 emissions by developed states by 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12.

President Bush (news - web sites) wants a less stringent target.

Washington's aim is to cut the amount of greenhouse gas emissions for every dollar of economic output by 18 percent in 2012 compared to 2002. The economy is likely to grow at a faster pace, meaning overall emissions will rise.

Beckett, who said there was no doubt human activity contributed to climate warming, said she believed there was no hope of persuading Bush to sign up to Kyoto.