Clinton and Cardoso Pledge Sustainable Development
10/15/97
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Headline: Clinton and Cardoso Pledge Sustainable Development
Source: The Environment News Service
Date: 10/15/97
Copyright 1997 ENS, Inc.
BRASILIA, Brazil, October 15, 1997 (ENS) - President Bill Clinton and
Brazilian President Fernando Cardoso Tuesday agreed to cooperate on energy,
free trade and the environment with fires now devouring the Amazon
rainforest fueling the urgency of their talks.
At a media briefing, President Clinton said the two leaders are of one mind
about implementing the principle of sustainable development. "We've agreed
that we can't have today's progress at tomorrow's expense," Clinton said.
The President [Cardoso] talked a little bit about our common commitment to
the environment. The clean energy agreement we have signed will help Brazil
to continue to grow, fueled by renewable and efficient energy
technologies."
"Our park services will work together to protect wetlands like the
Everglades and the Pantanal Park in Brazil," Clinton said. "We share
Brazil's determination to conserve the Amazon, one of the most wondrous and
biologically diverse environmental habitats in the world."
The United States will contribute another $10 million to the G-7's
cooperative program with Brazil to sustain the rainforests, the U.S.
president pledged. The U.S. will help Brazil to put 21st century technology
into protecting the Amazon forests, including research done by Brazilians
in space.
"The fires throughout the Amazon have added urgency to these efforts,"
Clinton said, "and the uncertainties about the climatic effects of this El
Nino, both in South America and in the United States, have also added
urgency to our efforts."
Presidents Cardoso and Clinton discussed the upcoming climate change
meeting in Kyoto, and responsibility of developing countries such as Brazil
to limit their emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to global
warming. "Five years ago in Rio, the world community began to chart a
common course to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that lead to global
warming. Developed countries have a special responsibility to lead. I told
President Cardoso that the United States will meet that responsibility with
a commitment to limit our emissions when we meet in Kyoto on December the
6th. But as we do our part, I believe so, too, must the developing world.
Climate change, after all, is a global problem that requires a global
solution," President Clinton said.
President Cardoso approved of the American President's position. "President
Clinton, for example, holds the view that I think is quite proper vis a vis
climate change," said the Brazilian leader. "He talks about shared
responsibility. He talks about the fact that responsibility should exclude
no segment of humanity because the climate is something that involves the
preservation of the conditions of life for future generations throughout
the planet. So we must come up with mechanisms which will allow us to
reduce the greenhouse gas effect."
"We should reduce the greenhouse gases, but in such a way as to ensure that
we're not harming the interests or the development of any country - the
United States, Brazil or developing countries," President Cardoso said.
These things should be done in a balanced way...which is what we're going
to try to do in Kyoto in December."